The Hacettepe Awards, which have been presented since 1992, were awarded to their recipients again this year. Four faculty members were honored with the 2024 Hacettepe Awards in three different categories. Prof. Dr. Lale Tokgözoğlu, Faculty Member of the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, received the Science Award in the field of Medicine and Health Sciences; Prof. Burak Tüzün, Faculty Member of the Ankara State Conservatory, and Lecturer Kamer Güngör received the Art Award; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özge Yüksel Orhan, a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Division of Process and Reactor Design, Faculty of Engineering, was awarded the Science Incentive Award in the field of Science and Engineering.
Prof. Burak Tüzün, Lecturer Kamer Güngör, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özge Yüksel Orhan were presented with their awards by our University Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Cahit Güran at the 2025-2026 Academic Year Opening Ceremony.
Prof. Dr. Tokgözoğlu: “Receiving this award makes the effort visible and valuable.”
Sharing her thoughts on the award with Gazete Hacettepe, Prof. Dr. Lale Tokgözoğlu said, "Being deemed worthy of this award by Hacettepe University, a pioneering institution with a strong academic tradition in the field of science, is a source of honor for me. Maintaining scientific productivity in a field like cardiology, which has a heavy clinical workload, often requires sacrificing personal time and moments spent with family, as well as enduring long, intense periods of work."
Prof. Tokgözoğlu emphasized that the award was very important to him, stating:
"Receiving this award after nearly forty years of service at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, where I first stepped as a student in 1976, makes this effort visible and valuable. Although I have received many prestigious awards to date, such as the European Society of Cardiology Preventive Cardiology Association gold medal and the Metrodora Global Leader in Science and Health award, I attach great importance to being honored by my own institution. In an age where values are constantly changing, I wholeheartedly believe that the only principle that remains unchanged and always guides us is science."
Prof. Tüzün: “We changed around three thousand notes.”
Prof. Burak Tüzün made the following statements regarding the editing process of Ernst Praetorius' Ankara 1941 symphony, which was the subject of the award:
"Analyzing all of this from a harmonic perspective, playing it, and correcting the wrong notes required a very long process. We changed approximately three thousand notes. Serious editing work was done on it."
Lecturer Kamer Güngör drew attention to the international dimension of the Ankara 1941 work being recorded in the Hacettepe University inventory, saying, "If any music institution in the world wants to perform the work, they now need to obtain permission from Hacettepe University. Because Ankara State Conservatory Publications have been entered into the inventory with the number 108."
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yüksel Orhan: “It creates a strategic opportunity for our country.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özge Yüksel Orhan, who was awarded the 2024 Science Incentive Award, expressed the importance of her award-winning work for Turkey with the following statements:
"Work in the field of carbon dioxide capture and reuse is not just an environmental issue. It is also a matter of energy, technology, and sustainability. Turkey is both a country with high energy imports and an industrial-intensive structure. Therefore, the idea of transforming carbon dioxide into a valuable resource rather than viewing it solely as waste creates a strategic opportunity for our country."
What are the Hacettepe Awards?
The presentation of the Hacettepe Awards began with the Hacettepe University Awards Directive, which was approved by the Hacettepe University Senate at its meeting on January 8, 1992, with decision number 92-9. The fundamental purpose of the Hacettepe Awards, presented annually, is to support the scientific work of researchers from any university, share their outstanding qualities and achievements with society, and honor the successes they have demonstrated or the work they have accomplished throughout their lives in the service of society.