BETÜL KAÇAR
The first Turkish Scientist Astrobiologist Betül Kacar, who was awarded a NASA scholarship for science studies, has now received a professorship offer from the University of Arizona for astrobiology studies.
Kacar was born in Istanbul, where she attended Cavusoglu High School.[1] Her parents were immigrants to Istanbul from the Black Sea region, and no women in her family had received a formal education.[1] She studied Chemistry at Marmara University, but was dissatisfied with the amount of free time in her schedule and began to volunteer.[1] Whilst volunteering at an international meeting about Alzheimer's, she learned about how the molecular properties of enzymes could change with age.[1] This inspired her to apply to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where she spent a summer conducting scientific research in Emory University.[1] She returned to Emory University in 2004, and eventually earned a PhD in Biomolecular Chemistry in 2010