Sancar Donating Nobel Money to Cultural Center

Posted on Jan. 5, 2016

Aziz Sancar, the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of biochemistry and biophysics who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in chemistry, is donating the more than $310,000 he won to the Aziz and Gwen Sancar Foundation of Chapel Hill.

Sancar, who is from Turkey and has been a UNC professor since 1982, used a past award in this same way: In 2007, Aziz won the Turkish equivalent of the Nobel Prize, and it came with a cash award of $100,000. He and his wife, Gwen — also a UNC professor of biochemistry and biophysics — used it to create the nonprofit foundation and to buy a four-bedroom house at 743 East Franklin St., now called the Carolina Türk Evi, or Turkish House, creating a cultural center close to campus. The idea dates to Sancar’s days as a graduate student.

“The day I stepped off the airplane in Dallas,” he said, “I essentially saw the need for such houses on college campuses and promised myself to eventually dedicate my resources to a project of this kind.”

The cultural center provides graduate housing for Turkish researchers at the University as well as short-term guest services for Turkish visiting scholars. UNC currently hosts about 100 Turkish students and scholars. These individuals occasionally have difficulty adapting to American culture, and one aim of Carolina Türk Evi is to help the scholars with that.

Another key aim of the foundation is to promote a cultural exchange between Turkey and the U.S.

“I believe strongly that we are all more similar than we are different,” Sancar said. “If we take the time or have the opportunity to learn about one another — to promote friendship and understanding — then we won’t have as many conflicts in our personal lives or between nations.”

As part of the Nobel Prize ceremonies in December, Sancar was given a medal and three replica medals. He donated the original medal to Turkey to be displayed at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey and the country’s first president.

“I give credit to Atatürk for creating an educational system that would allow a kid from a small, rural place to receive a quality education, go to medical school and pursue research at the highest level,” Sancar said. “I gave the medal to the mausoleum to honor this and to hopefully inspire the youth of Turkey who might wonder what they can accomplish in science if they work hard.”

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