Prof. Abdullah Kızılırmak

Prof. Abdullah KIZILIRMAK

(1925 – 1983 )

Prof. Dr Abdullah Kızılırmak is the founder of Ege University Observatory. 

The Faculty of Science, which is the third faculty of Ege University, which was established with two faculties (Medicine and Agriculture) in the 1955-1956 academic year, was established in the 1961-1962 academic year. The Astronomy Chair of the Faculty was established in the 1962 - 1963 academic year under the direction of the Chair of Mathematics and started teaching activities. Since there was no faculty member in the Astronomy Chair at the beginning, astronomy lessons were taught by Assoc. Prof. Abdullah Kızılırmak and As. Dr. Rümeysa Kızılırmak (from Ankara University Faculty of Science, between 4 – 31 October 1962), Assoc. Dr. Muammer Dizer (as a visiting professor from the Istanbul Kandilli Observatory, between 3 - 27 December 1972). In addition, from October 15, 1962 to January 11, 1963, Dr. Flecktenstein worked in Astronomy Chair as a foreign specialist.

With the appointment of Assoc. Dr. Abdullah Kızılırmak and As. Dr. Rumeysa Kızılırmak to the Astronomy Chair of the Faculty of Science of E.U. on January 8, 1963, the Chair of Astronomy, which left the management of the Chair of Mathematics, took its independent form. In the same year, with the newly appointed assistants, who were appointed to carry out management and teaching services in the same year (Sezai Hazer, M. Ünal Akyol, Şükrü Bozkurt, İlhami Yavuz), the Chair became stronger and took the path of development. In the 1963 - 1964 academic year, Assoc. Dr. Adnan Kıral and Assoc. Dr. Metin Hotinli contributed to the chair as visiting professors.

While the Chair of Astronomy was being established, efforts were also made to establish an observatory in order to help astronomy education, to implement the astronomy lessons taught, to provide opportunities for astronomers to be trained, to conduct scientific research, to establish scientific cooperation with national and international observatories, and to carry out activities that would respond to the public's curiosity about astronomy. During the establishment of the chair, all those who took part in the administration and teaching took part in the establishment, operation, observation and scientific studies of the observatory and worked sincerely in its development.

The selection of the region for the establishment of the observatory was made by a commission of three people, Assoc. Prof. Abdullah Kizilirmak, Assoc. Prof. Recep Egemen and foreign expert Dr. Fleckenstein.

Our observatory was supported in terms of instruments by various donations. The shortwave radio receiver donated by the German government through Prof. H. Kienle, a 13 cm diameter spectrometer and collimator donated by the German Academy of Sciences, With the initiative of Prof. Abdullah Kızılırmak, the iris photometer donation of the Alexander Von Humbolt Foundation in Germany and the photoelectric observation mechanism and printer donated by the German government are among the most important.

The first observation at the Observatory was made by Assoc. Prof. Abdullah Kizilirmak, Dr. Rümeysa Kızılırmak, Sezai Hazer, Ünal Akyol and Şükrü Bozkurt, who made "variable stars" observation on the night of June 22, 1965. This is how variable star observations, which are the main observation and research area of our observatory, started and have survived until today.

Prof. Abdullah Kızılırmak was appointed as the first director of our observatory and Prof. Celal Saraç and Ord. prof. Hans Kienle were elected as the member of the Board of Directors.

Managers of Our Observatory

Prof.Dr. Abdullah Kızılırmak (1968-1977)

Prof.Dr. Raymond H. Wilson (1977-1980)

Doç.Dr. Ömür Gülmen (1980-1981)

Prof.Dr. Sezai Hazer (1981-1984)

Doç.Dr. Ömür Gülmen (1984-1985)

Prof.Dr. İlhami Yavuz (1985-1994)

Prof.Dr. Şükrü Bozkurt (1994-1996)

Prof.Dr. Serdar Evren (1996-2009)

Prof.Dr. Zeynel Tunca (2009-2012)

Prof. Dr. Kadri Yakut (2013 - 2016)

Doç. Dr. Hasan Ali DAL (2016 - Still)