The Life and Career of Professor Doctor Celal Sengor

Having drawn attention with his foresights and statements with respect to earthquake-related topics and come to the fore once again with his ideas following the earthquake disaster suffered recently in Kahramanmaras, Professor Doctor Celal Sengor is now in the spotlight of Türkiye with the alerts he has been announcing with respect to earthquake. Celal Sengor, the well-recognized geologist appeared in a great number of tv programs following the earthquake and thus his life and professional career started to attract notice. 

Meanwhile, you can find detailed information about the life of Professor Ilber Ortayli, one of the key figures in the spotlight, in our article, Who is Ilber Ortayli, the Turkish Historian?.  Now, let's see in more detail who is Professor Doctor Celal Sengor who has stated warnings days before also for the earthquake occurred in Samandag, Hatay.

The Life of Celal Sengor

With its full name as Ali Mehmet Celal Sengor, the well-recognized geologist was born on March 24, 1955 in Istanbul. Sengor, who is originally a Rumelian immigrant, is the son of Gunseli Guler and Asim Sengor. Having started his elementary education in Sisli Terakki and continued at the Bayezid Elementary School, Professor Celal Sengor completed his secondary school education at İsik High School and his upper secondary education at Robert College.

Having been to the United States of America for higher education and enrolled in the Houston University, Sengor has afterwards transferred to the department of Geology at the New York State University graduated from the said university. Having done a master degree and a doctoral degree at the same university, Celal Sengor started to serve as an assistant at the department of Geology at the Faculty of Mines at Istanbul Technical University in 1981. 

During the years in which he has started to serve as an associate professor at ITU, Celal Sengor received the President's Award from the Geological Society of London in 1984 and the Science Award from TUBITAK (the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye) in 1986. He was admitted to Academia Europaea in 1990, and thus made his mark as being the first Turkish member of the society. In the sequel, having become a correspondent member of the Austrian Geological Service, Professor Doctor Celal Sengor became a honorary member of the Austrian Geological Society one year later, and became entitled to receive the Information Age award granted by the Ministry of Culture.

Having continued to advance in his professional career, Celal Sengor made his mark as a Professor at the department of General Geology at the Faculty of Mines at Istanbul Technical University in 1992. The well-recognized scientist also stood out as the youngest founder member at the Turkish Academy of Sciences. After a couple of years, Celal Sengor became a member of the Russian Natural Sciences Academy and a honorary member of the French and American geological societies and received the Rammal Medal and also the Lutaud Prize granted by the French Academy of Sciences.

Having lectured as a visiting professor within the organization of the institute, called College France, for some time, Sengor has been welcomed as a visiting professor at numerous schools and institutes throughout his academic life. With the great reputation he has gained in his own field as based on the studies he has conducted with respect to geology, Celal Sengor also wrote many books. Having published 6 books, 137 papers, 175 scientific articles and approximately 300 essays, Celal Sengor has thus materialized the fund of knowledge he has derived during his professional career. Acting as an assistant editor and also an editor for the publishing of numerous periodicals and publications, the well-recognized scientist has an excellent command of English, French and German, in addition to all such attributes.

Who is the Writer that has Inspired Celal Sengor? 

Celal Sengor replies the questions related to the fact that how and when his interest in Geology has started, by saying Jules Verne, the famous author. Expressing that he has started to like geology at his young ages when he read the Journey to the Center of the Earth, a book by Jules Verne, and also that he has leveraged such fancy with the Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, another book by the same author, Celal Sengor says that he thinks that growing into a man is to become someone as depicted by Jules Verne, and also that it was once again Jules Verne who made him to like geology. 

Having said during an interview that he has more than 30 thousand books at his personal library, Celal Sengor thus points out the positive impact of the books on the life and personality of a human. Married with Oya Maltepe, a writer, in 1986, Celal Sengor has a son whose name is Asim Sengor.