Aziz Sancar MD PhD, is the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. He was born in Savur-Mardin, Türkiye, in 1946, where he completed his primary and secondary education. He received his medical degree in 1969 from the Istanbul University School of Medicine. After practicing medicine in Savur for two years, he attended the University of Texas at Dallas where he obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology in 1977 for his work on DNA repair. Dr. Sancar conducted postdoctoral work at Yale University on the molecular biology of DNA repair from 1977 to 1982. In 1982, he joined the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UNC-Chapel Hill where he continued his research in DNA Repair, Cell Cycle and cancer treatment, and the Biological Clock.

He has published 288 research articles and 33 book chapters. Dr. Sancar is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a Member of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of the Vehbi Koç Award from the Koç Foundation of Türkiye in 2007, and a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015. Dr. Sancar is also the President of the Aziz & Gwen Sancar Foundation, which sponsors the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center. Dr. Sancar lives in Chapel Hill with his wife Gwen.

E-Mail : contact@sancar.org