Nazım Terzioglu

He completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of the famous mathematician of that period, Prof. Dr. Constantin Carathéodory (1873–1950), who was a member of a Greek family in Fener, Istanbul.

Alumni of that school included mathematicians such as Cahit Arf (1910–1997) and Tevfik Oktay Kabakcıoğlu (1910–1971).

In those years, the successful young people were sent abroad by the government to be trained as qualified

workforce in various fields needed for the country.

Terzioglu passed the relevant exam and left for Germany to study mathematics on behalf of the Ministry of Education of Turkey.

He pursued his higher education in the University of Göttingen and Munich University.

He started his secondary education in Istanbul and then continued in Izmir until his graduation from Izmir High School in 1930.

At that time, some of Turkey's most qualified mathematics teachers worked at Izmir High School.

Upon completion of his education in Germany, Terzioglu began to work as an assistant of Mathematical Mechanics and Advanced Geometry in the Institute of Mathematics of the Faculty of Science of Istanbul University in 1937.

He became associate professor in 1942 and the following year, he was appointed to professorship in the newly established Institute of Mathematics of the Faculty of Science of Ankara University (1943).

After spending two years in this faculty, he returned to Istanbul University as a professor (1944).

At Istanbul University, he worked as the Dean of the Faculty of Science in 1950–1952.

During the same period, Terzioglu established some of the scientific institutions for which Turkey had felt the major need until those years.

These are the Institute for Geophysics of Istanbul University, the Institute for Hydrobiology in Istanbul Baltalimani and the Cosmic Ray Institute which Terzioglu founded at Uludag, Bursa in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Adnan Sokullu and Prof. Dr. Sait Akpinar.

After his deanship in the Faculty of Science, he became the Chairman of the Analysis Division of the Institute of Mathematics in the same faculty (1953).

In 1965–1967, Terzioglu, in addition to his responsibilities in Istanbul University, worked first by proxy then acting as the principal founder-rector of Karadeniz (Black Sea) Technical University (KTU).

It is his honour to establish the first Faculty of Fundamental Sciences of Turkey in KTU.

In 1967, Terzioglu returned to his mission in the Faculty of Science of Istanbul University.

In 1969 and 1971, he was elected as the rector of Istanbul University.

He had maintained this position for two periods (28 October 1969 – 28 October 1971 and 28 October 1971 – 31 May 1974).

In his first years as a rector, he restored the building of a historical soup kitchen which was assigned by Wakfs to the university as a part of the Sehzade Mosque.

On 6 August 1971, by setting up a new printing system in it, he put the same building into service with the name of Research Institute for Mathematics of Faculty of Science.

To provide such an environment, he invited foreign scientists and organized congresses, seminars, colloquia, summer and progress courses in Silivri facilities which was opened into use on September 3, 1973.

Thanks to these activities, he made significant contributions to the education of young generations.

The scientific meetings organized by Terzioglu in Silivri facilities are:

Terzioglu died as a result of a heart attack in the morning of the opening day of the International Symposium organized to tribute Prof. Dr. Rolf Nevanlinna, who had been a teacher of Terzioglu.

Albeit his unexpected loss, the symposium was completed after some rearrangements were made in the program.

The guest mathematicians also attended the funeral ceremony on September 22 and the symposium began on September 23.

Terzioglu was elected as the honorary guest of this symposium and the title doctoris honoris causa was awarded to Prof. Dr. Rolf Nevanlinna by Istanbul University.

One of the contributions of Terzioglu as the director of the Mathematics Research Institute to Turkey's mathematical culture and the history of science was the systematic scan of the Islamic literature relevant to mathematics and the presentation of the information related to conic sections in ancient mathematics to the scientific community.

As a result of these efforts, the facsimile of two ancient texts of mathematics originally written in Arabic were realized.

The first one is the preface of Mecmuatu'r-risail, the Arabic translation by Beni Musa b. Sakir (died in 873) of Conica, which is the work of Apollonius of Perga (BC 262–190) on the conic sections.

Nazım Terzioğlu (1912–September 20, 1976) was one of the first mathematicians in Turkish academia.

Nazım Terzioğlu completed his primary education in his place of birth, Kayseri.

Terzioglu also established a mathematics library within this institute with a capacity of 2000 books which he provided through donations and purchase from foreign countries.

After his death, the institute was named on the proposal of the Faculty of Science as Nazim Terzioglu Mathematics Research Institute.

As an outcome of the negotiations with Silivri Municipality, Terzioglu provided Istanbul University with 35 acres of land to be donated in Silivri.

In a part of this land, 18 study rooms, 3 large conference halls, a library and a guest house to accommodate scientists coming from abroad were constructed in accord with his order.

Terzioglu considered graduate education very seriously.

He believed that talented young people ought to be trained in a particular way.