Biography:Oktay Sinanoğlu

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Oktay Sinanoğlu
Born
Bari, Italy
DiedApril 19, 2015(2015-04-19) (aged 80)
Miami, Florida, United States
Resting placeKaracaahmet Cemetery, Istanbul, Turkey
NationalityTurkish
Education
Alma mater
Awards
  • TÜBİTAK Science Award (1966)
  • Humboldt Prize (1973)
  • International Outstanding Scientist Award of Japan (1975)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysical chemistry, molecular biophysics and biochemistry
Institutions
ThesisIntermolecular Forces and Statistical Mechanics (1959)
Doctoral advisorKenneth Pitzer
Doctoral studentsAriel Fernandez

Oktay Sinanoğlu (February 25, 1935 – April 19, 2015) was a Turkish physical chemist and molecular biophysicist who made significant contributions to the theory of electron correlation in molecules, the statistical mechanics of clathrate hydrates, quantum chemistry, and the theory of solvation.

Private life

Sinanoğlu was born in Bari, Italy on February 25, 1935, to Nüzhet Haşim and Rüveyde (Karacabey) Sinanoğlu. His father was a consular official under the Consul General Atıf Kor in the Bari Consulate of Turkey,[1] and a writer. Following his father's recall to Turkey in July 1938, the family returned to Turkey before the start of World War II.[2][3] He had a sister, Esin Afşar (1936-2011), who became a well-known singer and actress.[4]

Sinanoğlu graduated from TED Ankara Koleji in 1951. He went to the United States in 1953, where he studied in University of California, Berkeley graduating with a BSc degree with highest honors in 1956. The following year, he completed his MSc at MIT (1957), and was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship. He completed his predoctoral fellowship (1958-1959) and earned his PhD in physical chemistry (1959-1960) from the University of California, Berkeley.[3][4][5]

On December 21, 1963, Oktay Sinanoğlu married Paula Armbruster,[6] who was doing graduate work at Yale University. The wedding ceremony took place in the Branford College Chapel of Yale.[5]

After their later divorce, he remarried to Dilek Sinanoğlu and from this marriage he became the father of twins. The family resided in the Emerald Lakes neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and in Istanbul, Turkey.[3]

Academic career

In 1960, Sinanoğlu joined the chemistry department at Yale University. He was appointed full professor of chemistry in 1963.[7] At age 28, he became the youngest full professor in Yale’s 20th-century history. It is believed that he was the third-youngest full professor in the 300-plus year history of Yale University.[3]

During his tenure at Yale he wrote a number of papers in various subfields of theoretical chemistry, the most widely cited of which was his 1961 paper on electron correlation.[8] This work anticipated the widely used coupled cluster method for describing electrons in molecules with greater accuracy than is possible via the Hartree-Fock method. He also published important papers on the statistical mechanics of clathrate hydrates,[9][10] solvation,[11][12] chemical reaction networks, and surface tension.[13] His final projects were focused on the development of his valency interaction formula (VIF) theory, a method for predicting energy level patterns for compounds from the manipulation of graphs (1983).[14][15] He intended for chemists to be able to use his system to predict the ways in which complex chemical reactions would proceed, using only a chalkboard or pencil and paper. He continued to develop the VIF method, which he sometimes referred to as "Sinanoğlu Made Simple," and other problems related to graph theory and quantum mechanics for the rest of his career.[16][17][18][19] After 37 years on the Yale faculty, Sinanoğlu retired in 1997.

During his time at Yale, Sinanoğlu served as a frequent consultant to several Turkish universities and to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) as well as to the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).[3] In 1962, the Board of Trustees of Middle East Technical University in Ankara granted him the title of "consulting professor."[4]

After his retirement from Yale, Sinanoğlu was appointed to the chemistry department of Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul, serving until 2002.[20]

Sinanoğlu was the author or co-author of over 200 scientific articles and books. He also authored books on contemporary affairs in Turkey and Turkish language, such as "Target Turkey" and "Bye Bye Turkish" (2005).[3][20] In "Bye Bye Turkish", he propounded the idea of cognation between Turkish and Japanese based on the alleged similarity of a number of words.

A 2001 best-seller book about his life and works, edited by Turkish writer Emine Çaykara, referred to him as "The Turkish Einstein, Oktay Sinanoğlu" (Turkish: Türk Aynştaynı Oktay Sinanoğlu Kitabı).[3][21]

Honors

He received the "TÜBİTAK Science Award" for chemistry in 1966,[22] the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award in chemistry in 1973, and the "International Outstanding Scientist Award of Japan" in 1975. It has been reported in Turkish media that Sinanoğlu was a two-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry,[20] but this claim is not supported by actual data from the Nobel Foundation and needs confirmation.[23]

Death

His wife Dilek Sinanoğlu made public on April 10, 2015, that Oktay Sinanoğlu was hospitalized in Miami, Florida, and was in a coma in the intensive care unit.[24] He died at age 80 on April 19, 2015. No medical statement was released about the cause of the death.[25] His body was transferred to Turkey, where he was buried in Karacaahmet Cemetery, Üsküdar following the religious funeral service at Şakirin Mosque.[26]

References

  1. ↑ Resmi Gazete, 17 Kanunuevvel 1933, no: 2580 and Resmi Gazete, 24 Mayis 1937, Hariciye Vekaleti Kararnamesi
  2. ↑ T.C. Resmi Gazete 19.7.1938 p.1 Hariciye Kararnamesi (Decree of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs): "9. degree consular employee Nüzhet Haşim Sinanoğlu appointed to the capital (Ankara) with same degree. Sign: K. Atatürk, 11 July 1938." (Dokuzuncu dereceden memur Nüzhet Haşim Sinanoğlu, derecesiyle merkeze... İmza: K. Atatürk, 11 Temmuz 1938."
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 "In memoriam: Oktay Sinanoğlu, renowned theoretical chemist". Yale News. 2015-04-20. http://news.yale.edu/2015/04/20/memoriam-oktay-sinano-lu-renowned-theoretical-chemist. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Oktay Sinanoğlu hayatını kaybetti - Oktay Sinanoğlu Kimdir?" (in tr). Sabah. 2015-04-20. http://www.sabah.com.tr/yasam/2015/04/20/oktay-sinanoglu-hayatini-kaybetti-oktay-sinanoglu-kimdir. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Paula Armbruster Is Married at Yale". The New York Times. 1964-01-12. https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/12/paula-armbruster-is-married-at-yale.html?_r=0. 
  6. ↑ "Oktay Sinanoglu Paula Armbruster Connecticut-Marriage Record Index 1959-2007". Mocavo. http://www.mocavo.com/Oktay-Sinanoglu-Paula-Armbruster-Connecticut-Marriage-Record-Index-1959-2007/15439576052205938358. 
  7. ↑ Yale Daily News, no. 139, May 22, 1963
  8. ↑ Sinanoğlu, Oktay (August 1961). "Many-Electron Theory of Atoms and Molecules". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 47 (8): 1217–1226. doi:10.1073/pnas.47.8.1217. PMID 16590874. Bibcode: 1961PNAS...47.1217S. 
  9. ↑ McKoy, V.; Sinanoğlu, O. (1963-06-15). "Theory of Dissociation Pressures of Some Gas Hydrates". The Journal of Chemical Physics 38 (12): 2946–2956. doi:10.1063/1.1733625. ISSN 0021-9606. Bibcode: 1963JChPh..38.2946M. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1733625. 
  10. ↑ Medeiros, Fernando de Azevedo; Segtovich, Iuri Soter Viana; Tavares, Frederico Wanderley; Sum, Amadeu K. (2020-12-23). "Sixty Years of the van der Waals and Platteeuw Model for Clathrate Hydrates—A Critical Review from Its Statistical Thermodynamic Basis to Its Extensions and Applications" (in en). Chemical Reviews 120 (24): 13349–13381. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00494. ISSN 0009-2665. PMID 33226781. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00494. 
  11. ↑ Sinano?lu, Oktay (August 1980). "The solvophobic theory for the prediction of molecular conformations and biopolymer bindings in solutions with recent direct experimental tests" (in en). International Journal of Quantum Chemistry 18 (2): 381–392. doi:10.1002/qua.560180207. ISSN 0020-7608. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/qua.560180207. 
  12. ↑ Stefaniuk, Anna; Gawinkowski, Sylwester; Golec, Barbara; Gorski, Aleksander; Szutkowski, Kosma; Waluk, Jacek; Poznański, Jarosław (2022-11-04). "Isotope effects observed in diluted D2O/H2O mixtures identify HOD-induced low-density structures in D2O but not H2O" (in en). Scientific Reports 12 (1): 18732. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-23551-9. ISSN 2045-2322. PMID 36333587. Bibcode: 2022NatSR..1218732S. 
  13. ↑ Sinanoğlu, Oktay (1981-07-01). "Microscopic surface tension down to molecular dimensions and microthermodynamic surface areas of molecules or clusters". The Journal of Chemical Physics 75 (1): 463–468. doi:10.1063/1.441807. ISSN 0021-9606. Bibcode: 1981JChPh..75..463S. https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.441807. 
  14. ↑ "Personal page" (in tr). http://oktaysinanoglu.com.tr/?cat=3. 
  15. ↑ Alia, Joseph (September 2010). "Chemical Reasoning Based on an Invariance Property: Bond and Lone Pair Pictures in Quantum Structural Formulas" (in en). Symmetry 2 (3): 1559–1590. doi:10.3390/sym2031559. ISSN 2073-8994. Bibcode: 2010Symm....2.1559A. 
  16. ↑ Sinanoğlu, Oktay (1985-10-01). "New method for qualitative quantum chemical deductions on organic or inorganic molecules or clusters directly from structural formulas or ORTEP diagrams" (in en). Theoretica Chimica Acta 68 (4): 251–270. doi:10.1007/BF00527534. ISSN 1432-2234. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00527534. 
  17. ↑ Sinanoglu, Oktay (1993-12-01). "Dyad algebra and multiplication of graphs. I. Directed graphs" (in en). Journal of Mathematical Chemistry 14 (1): 185–194. doi:10.1007/BF01164465. ISSN 1572-8897. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01164465. 
  18. ↑ Sinanoglu, Oktay (1993-12-01). "Dyad algebra and multiplication of graphs. II. Undirected graphs" (in en). Journal of Mathematical Chemistry 14 (1): 195–205. doi:10.1007/BF01164466. ISSN 1572-8897. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01164466. 
  19. ↑ Sinanoglu, Oktay; Alia, Joe; Hastings, Matt (June 1, 1994). "Valency Interactions in AHm0,.-+. (Hydrides of Main Group Elements, Radicals, Cations, Anions) and MO Energy Level Patterns Directly from the Pictorial "VIF" Method Compared with Computer Calculations" (in en). The Journal of Physical Chemistry 98 (23): 5867–5877. doi:10.1021/j100074a010. ISSN 0022-3654. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/j100074a010. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 "Prominent Turkish scholar Oktay Sinanoğlu dies at age 80". Hürriyet Daily News. 2015-04-21. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/prominent-turkish-scholar-oktay-sinanoglu-dies-at-age-80.aspx?PageID=238&NID=81309&NewsCatID=341. 
  21. ↑ From the back cover of this book: "Prof. Oktay Sinanoğlu's life is told from his own mouth by questions and answers in this book." ("Prof. Oktay Sinanoğlu'nun yaşamının kendi ağzından soru cevaplar eşliğinde anlatıldığı Türk Aynştaynı kitabında..."
  22. ↑ "Geçmiş Yıllarda Bilim Ödülü Alanlar" (in tr). TÜBİTAK. http://www.tubitak.gov.tr/tr/kurumsal/oduller/icerik-gecmis-yillarda-bilim-odulu-alanlar. 
  23. ↑ "Oktay Sinanoğlu'nun Nobel Ödülüne 2 Kez Aday Olduğu ve Nobel Ödülünü Reddettiği İddiası" (in tr). Malumatfuruş. 15 August 2019. https://www.malumatfurus.org/oktay-sinanoglunun-nobel-odulune-2-kez-aday-oldugu-ve-nobel-odulunu-reddettigi-iddiasi/. 
  24. ↑ "Türk Einstein'ı yoğun bakımda! Prof. Dr. Oktay Sinanoğlu kimdir?" (in tr). Hürriyet. 2015-04-10. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/28705068.asp. 
  25. ↑ "Turkish Einstein' Oktay Sinanoglu dies at 80". Anadolu Agency. 2015-04-20. http://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/496597--turkish-einstein-oktay-sinanoglu-dies-at-80. 
  26. ↑ Türk, Ümit (2015-04-26). "Oktay Sinanoğlu son yolculuğuna uğurlandı" (in tr). Hürriyet. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/28842532.asp. 

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