Feza Gürsey

Feza Gürsey

Feza Gürsey (7 April 1921, Istanbul – 13 April 1992, New Haven) was a Turkish physicist and mathematician.

Life

He was born on 7 April 1921 in Istanbul as the first child of Remziye Hisar (1902–1992) and Reşit Süreyya Gürsey (1889–1962). His father, Reşit Süreyya Gürsey, was a medical doctor, physicist, and teacher, as well as an intellectual with a deep interest in science and art. His mother, Remziye Hisar, was among the first female students to study science at the Darülfünun and a scientist who managed to earn a doctorate in chemistry at the Sorbonne at a time when very few women in Europe could pursue a career. Remziye Hisar was one of the pioneers of modern science in Republican-era Turkey and is regarded as the first woman pioneer of the chemistry profession in Turkey.

Feza Gürsey was born in Anadoluhisarı, Istanbul, in Remziye Hanım's family home at Otağtepe. He began primary school at the Jeanne d'Arc school in Paris and won the admiration of his teachers. As his sister Deha Gürsey Owen recounted, his teacher Madame Denizot was very fond of Feza Gürsey because he learned everything quickly, and she would not let him leave her side.

Continuing the third grade of primary school at Galatasaray High School, Gürsey became a beloved and admired student of the school. His classmate, retired Ambassador Özer F. Tevs, described Feza Gürsey in one of his writings as follows:

"39 Feza Gürsey was a student who impressed all the Galatasaray High School pupils of his time as well as the esteemed teachers, both Turkish and foreign. In the third year of middle school, during evening study, we would see Feza in a corner reading Proust's philosophical stories, In Search of Lost Time, or examining reproductions of Cézanne... During the long breaks our French teachers would call him into the teachers' room and chat with him... There was another very hardworking student, two grades above us. After graduating, someone asked one of the French teachers, 'Was Feza or the other student the more outstanding?' He replied, 'The difference between Feza and the other student was as great as the difference between a village schoolteacher and a full professor.'

Awards

1977: J.R. Oppenheimer Prize together with S. Glashow; A. Cressey Morrison Prize in Natural Sciences together with R. Griffiths

1981: Visiting professor at the Collège de France and the Collège de France Medal

1984: Order of Commendatore from the President of Italy

1986: Visiting Professorship Award in Rome

1989: Distinguished Scientist Award of the Association of Turkish American Scientists and Engineers

1990: Galatasaray Foundation Medal

Sources

Türkçe →