One of Turkey's first female astronomers: Who is Nüzhet Gökdoğan?

Prof Dr Nüzhet Gökdoğan was born in Istanbul in 1910. Her father is Major General Mehmet Zihni Toydemir, one of Atatürk's comrades, and her mother is Nebihe Hanım. After graduating from Erenköy Girls' High School, which she attended as a boarding student, in 1928, she won a state scholarship and was sent to France to do her mathematics-physics undergraduate degree. After learning French at Lyon Girls' High School, she went to Boys' High School and studied mathematics mainly. She completed her undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of Lyon in 1932. She started to study physics at the University of Paris in 1933 and did an internship at the Paris Observatory. She returned home after the year-end exams.

NUZHET GÖKDOĞAN FIRST TURKISH ASSOCIATE

Nüzhet Gökdoğan was appointed as the first Turkish associate professor to the Institute of Astronomy at the Faculty of Science at Istanbul University. She participated in the establishment of an observatory in the garden of the university. She was appointed as the assistant professor of the Graduate School of Engineering (Istanbul Technical University) in 1936 and became the first female employee of this institution. She continued her duty as an associate professor of mathematics until 1946.

She completed her doctoral thesis at Istanbul University Faculty of Science in 1937. This thesis is registered as the "number one" thesis in the faculty records. Gökdoğan married Mukbil Gökdoğan in 1938, whom she met while at the Higher Engineering School. From this marriage, her daughter Gönül (1941) and son Ömer Can (1946) were born.

She received the title of associate professor in 1940. In the same year, she translated William Marshall Smart's Spherical Astronomy into Turkish with the name Spherical Astronomy. She received the title of professor in 1948.

Nüzhet Gökdoğan was also among the founders of the Turkish Mathematical Society (1948) and the Turkish Women's Association (1949). She was the president of the Turkish Women's Association at various times. She continued the presidency of the Turkish Astronomy Association, which she founded in 1954 with several astronomers, for 20 years.

In 1951-1952 she went to Michigan, USA. She worked at the Sheann Arbos and McMath Hulbert observatories and in Pasadena, where the Wilson Mountain Observatory and Palomar Mountain Observatory have been headquartered.

NUZHET GÖKDOĞAN BECOME THE FIRST FEMALE DEAN OF TURKEY

Nüzhet Gökdoğan was elected as the dean of the Faculty of Science at Istanbul University on June 23, 1954, and continued this duty for two years as Turkey's first female dean. Since 1958, she was the chair of the Astronomy Chair for 22 years. During her Presidency of the Department, she developed joint research programs with the Observatories of Meudon and Nice in France, Basel in Switzerland, and Asiago Observatories in Italy. She organized the "Keppler Symposium" in December 1971 at the Chair of Astronomy with the participation of Turkish and Balkan astronomers.

She was elected dean for the second time in 1978. She organized the National Astronomy Congress II in Silivri in September. This Congress was a very important meeting where the idea of the National Observatory, which was established in 1997, came to the fore and started to be discussed.

Nüzhet Gökdoğan retired in 1980 while serving as dean and department chair. She translated 6 textbooks during her academic life; She wrote 3 textbooks; 13 scientific articles have been published. She played a role in taking the first steps in the establishment of the TÜBİTAK National Observatory.

Nüzhet Gökdoğan passed away on April 24, 2003.