We continue to share with you the stories of our scientists who grew up in Turkey and set an example for our country and the world with their struggles. The guest of our column today is Remziye Hisar, whose greatest achievement in her 90-year life was to bring the science of chemistry to Turkey. We all get to know Hisar, who sacrificed his life for Turkey to take a role in the global science scene.
The early years of young Turkey were very difficult with the implementation of many policies aimed at development in terms of economy and industry. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has repeatedly stated that a more difficult test awaits us than the Independence Struggle in the first years of the republic, and for this purpose, important reforms were made in terms of education to train Turkish scientists.
Although scientists were trained in some important educational institutions inherited from the Ottoman Empire, these were not enough to stand out on the world stage scientifically. In 1902, a child was born in Skopje, which was once in Ottoman territory. As he grew older, he would worry about bigger problems than himself. That child was the very first Turkish female chemist, Remziye Hisar.
Salih Hulusi, one of the civil servants of the Ottoman Empire working in Skopje, and his wife Ayşe Refia, II. After the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy, they returned to Istanbul in 1909 with little Remziye. Remziye graduated from Mekteb-i İptidai in Istanbul Davutpaşa, which is today’s primary school, in 1 year. The standard education period of the school was 3 years. At that time, the signals of a liberation struggle were given in the country, and the Entente states were beginning to share the lands inch by inch. Other problems were flashing in Remziye’s mind, and storms were breaking out.
Remziye continued her education at the İttihat ve Terakki School, İnas High School and Istanbul Girls’ Teachers’ School. Two months after 19 May 1919, the young Remziye, who would be a struggle for the scientific leadership of Anatolia, won the Darülfünun by ranking first from the school. Meanwhile, he had already started giving geometry and mathematics lessons to the small classes of his school.
The heaviness of hearing foreign names all the time:
Remziye Hisar and her sister Mihri
The science of chemistry started to turn into a love for Remziye. As soon as he entered Darülfünun, he enrolled in the Chemistry department. In the following years, he would explain his choice in an interview as follows:
“I was devastated to see foreign names in laws and inventions in science classes. I thought that if I was successful in this branch, I could overcome the frustration of not being able to see a single Turkish name in the field of science.”
During his education at Darülfünun, he went to Baku, Azerbaijan, with his classmates and teacher. At that time, Baku was a place of apocalypse, science aside, teaching was a big problem. The Caucasus was agitated, and young Remziye could not give up her love of teaching. She didn’t give up. Remziye, who grew up in an institution where male and female students receive education separately, started to teach chemistry at a boys’ school in Baku. Meanwhile, he met the love of his life and one of Turkey’s pioneers in medicine, Reşit Süreyya. Sureyya was working in Baku as a medical doctor trained in Turkey.
We got to know Reşit Süreyya with the surname Gürsey, which he took with the surname law after the proclamation of the republic. She got married on April 20, 1920, they had to leave Azerbaijan, which was occupied by the Soviet Army at that time. Their new stop was Istanbul.
When the calendars showed April 7, 1921, Reşit and Remziye had a son and they named him Feza. Appointed as the principal of the Girls’ Teachers’ School in Adana, Remziye Hisar entrusted Feza to her mother because of the internal turmoil in the country; He ran after his love of education and went to the other end of Anatolia.
At the same time, Reşit Hisar started to have a serious illness and had to continue his treatment in Paris due to limited opportunities. In order not to leave her husband alone, Remziye Hisar went to Paris, received one of the first educational support of the new republic and started to study at Sorbonne University. Meanwhile, the couple took their daughter, Deha Gürsey, in their arms.
Taking a Chemistry lesson from Madame Curie:
Marie Curie, winner of two Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry, who discovered radioactivity
At that time, names such as Langevin and Madame Curie, who were the pioneers of chemistry, were also giving lectures to the Sorbonne. Remziye Hisar had a great opportunity in front of her, she could bring everything she learned to her hometown. Hisar, who studied Biochemistry in Paris, was given a scholarship when he started his doctorate. Remziye had to return to Turkey. She started to work as an administrative manager at Erenköy Girls’ High School in Istanbul. There was a problem; He could not teach anyone what he had learned here. He applied again for a PhD in Paris, again rejected.
When Hisar heard that a chemistry teacher was missing at the Mining Engineering School in Zonguldak, he at least wanted to be assigned there. He applied. Meanwhile, he caught the attention of Cemal Hüsnü Taray, one of the successful economists of the young republic. Taray was serving as the Minister of National Education at that time. Remziye Hisar’s struggle yielded results. The young scientist, who received the support of the minister, received a scholarship for doctoral education in France. The real surprise came when his son Feza was accepted to Galatasaray High School with a boarding scholarship.
Feza Gursey
Reşit Süreyya Gürsey, who regained his health in the same years, decided to go to the USA to work. Remziye Hisar divorced her husband after this decision. Remziye, who took her daughter and sister with her, went to France. Her sister Mihri was like a secret hero who paved the way for Remziye, while she was taking care of Deha, Remziye graduated from the Sorbonne in 1933 as a doctor in chemistry. Meanwhile, he has written many articles on “metaphosphate” and published them in scientific journals around the world. He got his associate professorship again in 1933, and in 1936 he worked with Prof. He left the institution after a disagreement with Arndt.
Turkey has changed, and education reforms have yielded results. Remziye returned to her hometown:
Darilfünun, of which Remziye Hisar is a graduate, had changed after the education reforms in order to be able to collaborate with world universities and to have the same education standard. The institution was now known as Istanbul University. Remziye Hisar started her research as an associate professor in the fields of general chemistry and physical chemistry here. In 1936, he worked as a biochemist at the Institute of Public Health.
When we arrived in 1947, Hisar started to work as an associate professor in the field of Machinery and Chemistry at Istanbul Technical University. In 1949, she became one of the founders of the Turkish University Women’s Association. Hisar, who carried his studies in the field of chemistry to Turkey, became one of the pioneers of a whole branch of science in our country. For his work, the French government awarded him the Order of “Academic Officer” in 1956. In 1959, Remziye Hisar was now a professor. He received this title in Turkish universities, where he laid the foundations in Turkey with his own hands.
He continued to do research until 1973, that is, until he was 71 years old, after which he retired. During these years, his son Feza Gürsey succeeded to become a world-renowned physicist by getting the support of Cahit Arf, a mathematician ordinary. His daughter Deha Gürsey, on the other hand, became interested in psychology and became the only Turkish who managed to work in the International Psychological Union.
Deha Gürsey and Remziye Hisar
Remziye Hisar spent the last years of her life alone in her father’s house in Anadolu Hisarı, Istanbul. On April 13, 1992, when he heard the death of Feza Gürsey, one of the names who introduced physics to Turkey, he could not stand it. A short time later, he died at his home in Istanbul.
Hisar has received many awards from international institutions for his dozens of articles, important discoveries and studies in the field of chemistry. In Turkey, he was only able to receive the TÜBİTAK Science Award, which he received in 1991, which corresponds to the last years of his life. His greatest reward was the young people he raised in the field of chemistry, his two successful children, and his life story that set an example for thousands of women.
We commemorate him with great pride and respect, and wish success to the young people who will protect his legacy.
See you next week with the story of another Turkish scientist, stay tuned.
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