The character arc of Aziz Sancar

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born on 8 September 1946 to a lower-middle-class family in the Savur district of Mardin Province in south-eastern Turkey, the seventh of eight children of parents who were uneducated and who insisted on his schooling. Between then and now sit teachers trained in the village institutes who he has called a great inspiration, sustained academic success at school, an intention to study chemistry that was talked out of him, a medical degree at Istanbul University, a research career in the United States on DNA repair and the circadian clock, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015. The line below draws the story so far, in order.

Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who is Aziz Sancar?

His parents could not read, and he won the Nobel Prize.

He was born in the Savur district of Mardin Province, in the south east of Turkey, the seventh of eight children of a lower-middle-class family. His parents were uneducated, and they put great emphasis on his education anyway, which is the fact that makes the rest of the line possible. He was taught by idealistic teachers who had themselves been trained in the village institutes, a programme set up to put teachers into rural Turkey, and he has said since that this was a great inspiration to him.

He had sustained academic success at school and was noticed for it. He wanted to study chemistry, and was persuaded into medicine instead after five of his classmates got places in it alongside him, which is as ordinary a reason as anybody has ever had for choosing a career. He read medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Istanbul University.

What he built from there is a body of work on how cells repair their own DNA: on photolyase, on nucleotide excision repair in bacteria, on cell cycle checkpoints and on the circadian clock. The record says plainly that his contributions changed his field. In 2015 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared with two other scientists, for mechanistic studies of DNA repair, which is the subject he arrived at after being talked out of chemistry.

The moments

Aziz Sancar's timeline.

The 1940s

8 Sep 1946

Seventh of eight

Everyday. Eight children, in a district a long way from any university.

The 1950s

~1952

Parents who could not read

Milestone, and it changed everything. Neither of them had been to school, and they insisted that he would.

~1955

Teachers from the institutes

Milestone, and it changed everything. A national scheme put good teachers in rural schools, and he was in one of them.

The 1960s

~1962

Noticed at school

Milestone, and it changed his direction. The teachers saw it, which in that district was the whole of the opportunity.

~1963

Talked out of chemistry

Setback, and it changed everything. He wanted chemistry and took medicine because his friends did.

1 Jan 1963

Chemistry, or medicine

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: take the medical place, taken, or insist on chemistry. He became a molecular biologist and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015.

The 1970s

~1970

Into the laboratory

Milestone, and it changed his direction. He got back to chemistry the long way round, through a medical degree.

The 1980s

~1983

Photolyase

Milestone, and it changed everything. Two mechanisms, worked out in detail, that the whole field now uses.

The 1990s

~1995

The circadian clock

Milestone, and it changed his direction. How a cell knows what time it is, which turns out to matter a great deal.

The 2010s

7 Oct 2015

The Nobel Prize

Milestone, and it changed everything. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the subject he had been talked out of studying.

Mardin Province produced a Nobel laureate in chemistry and a great many people there know it. What it has set moving is partly in the laboratories that now use his mechanisms as standard, and partly in every household in rural Turkey where parents who never went to school decide that their children will.

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What is Aziz Sancar's character arc?

The seventh of eight children of unschooled parents in south-eastern Turkey who insisted he be educated, taught by teachers from a rural training scheme, talked out of chemistry into medicine, and awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015.

What did Aziz Sancar win the Nobel Prize for?

Mechanistic studies of DNA repair, shared in 2015 with Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich. He has made contributions on photolyase and on nucleotide excision repair in bacteria that the record says changed his field.

Did Aziz Sancar want to study chemistry?

Yes, while he was at high school. He was persuaded to study medicine instead after five of his classmates got places in it alongside him, and read medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Istanbul University.

What were Aziz Sancar's parents like?

Uneducated, and insistent on his schooling. The record states that his parents were uneducated but put great emphasis on his education, which is the fact the rest of his life rests on. He was the seventh of their eight children.

Who taught Aziz Sancar?

Idealistic teachers who had themselves been educated in the Village Institutes, a scheme that trained teachers for rural Turkey. He has said since that having them was a great inspiration to him, and his academic success at school was noted by them.

What does Aziz Sancar research?

DNA repair, cell cycle checkpoints and the circadian clock. In plain terms, how a cell mends its own damaged instructions, how it decides whether to divide, and how it knows what time of day it is.

Where does this timeline of Aziz Sancar's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Aziz Sancar isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to him.

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Sources

Aziz Sancar, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry records, 2015.