Prof. Zehra Sayers First Woman from Turkey on ‘BBC 100 Women List’
* Photo: AA
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The BBC has revealed its list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2019.
Several women from climate activist Greta Thunberg to architect Marwa Al-Sabouni, who has drawn up plans to rebuild war-torn Syria and NASA's MiMi Aung responsible for a team designing a helicopter to fly on Mars will share their vision of what the life could look like in 2030.
At the top of the list is US ballet dancer Precious Adams. While journalist Sara Wesslin is also listed among the "BBC 100 Women 2019", Prof. Zehra Sayers has become the first woman from Turkey on the list.
She was awarded 2019 Award for Science Diplomacy
On the official website of the BBC, scientist Prof. Zehra Sayers has been introduced to the readers in following words:
"Biophysicist Zehra Sayers has been hailed as a beacon of hope for the Middle East (Nature journal) for her success in bringing scientists from eight Middle Eastern countries together.
"During her 15-year tenure as chair of the SESAME project, she assembled the group - including scientists from Israel, Palestine, Turkey and Cyprus - under the same roof to found a CERN-like laboratory. She has been awarded the prestigious 2019 Award for Science Diplomacy for the feat."
The BBC has also shared the following remarks previously uttered by Sayers: "I am very happy to see young female scientists at SESAME today, either as staff members or as users. I believe that SESAME provides several opportunities for women from the Middle East to make their research more visible and their voice better heard."
About Prof. Zehra SayersProf. Dr. Zehra Sayers is a molecular biophysicist working on the structure-function relationships in biological molecules using synchrotron radiation X-rays. She is a founding member of the Genetics, Molecular Biology and Bioengineering programme at Sabanci University in Istanbul. She is also Director of the Foundations Development Programme at Sabanci University. Since 2002 Dr. Sayers has been the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of SESAME. Dr. Sayers obtained a BSc in Physics from Bogazici University in Istanbul and completed her PhD at Guy's Hospital Medical School, University of London. She worked several years as a staff scientist at EMBL Hamburg conducting pioneering work in use of synchrotron radiation for structural studies of cytoskeletal proteins and chromatin. After returning to Turkey, she pioneered work in structural biology and trained young scientists in this field. Recently, she has been involved in design and development of an interdisciplinary undergraduate core curriculum program as well as use of new pedagogical approaches for teaching science at the university level in Turkey. Source: bilimakademisi.org |
How were the 100 Women chosen?The BBC explains how it chooses 100 women in following words on its website: "The BBC's 100 Women team drew up a shortlist based on names gathered by them and suggested by the BBC's network of World Service languages teams. We were looking for candidates who had made the headlines or influenced important stories over the past 12 months, as well as those who have inspiring stories to tell, achieved something significant or influenced their societies in ways that wouldn't necessarily make the news. The pool of names was then assessed against this year's theme - the Female Future - and measured for regional representation and due impartiality, before the final 100 were chosen." |
(EMK/SD)
