Prof. Betül Kacar Admitted to NASA Team

Click to read the article in Turkish

Prof. Betül Kacar, an academic in the field of astrobiology, has shared a message on her Twitter account and announced that she has been admitted to a newly-formed team at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that will investigate the traces of life in the universe.

Kacar has shared the following message on Twitter:

"A good news. I find it hard to put it into words, but here it is: I have been admitted to a NASA team recently formed to investigate the traces of life in the universe. I started this year with a minor health problem, but this news has come like a medicine at this time of the morning. Let me conclude by saying that health comes first."

Guzel bir haber. Kelimelere dokmekte zorlaniyorum, ama soyle: Evrende yasamin izlerini arastirmak icin olustulan yeni bir NASA ekibine kabul edilmisim. Bu seneye ufak bir saglik sorunu ile basladim, ilac gibi geldi bu haber sabah sabah. Herseyin basi saglik diyerek bitireyim :)

— Betül Kacar (@betulland) January 16, 2020

'My story is based on hard work'

Prof. Kacar is the first citizen of Turkey to receive a scholarship from NASA and one of the professors of astrobiology in Arizona University.

As reported by Sputnik in 2017, Kacar told about herself briefly as follows:

"I graduated from university in Turkey at the age of 20 and emigrated to the US on my own. At the age of 20, I directly started to work on Parkinson and Alzheimer's diseases for my PhD studies. I started doing my PhD a bit early because I also started primary school early as I wanted to read very much. I did my PhD on Parkinson and Alzheimer's.

"At that time, I also got interested in evolution, it was a very controversial subject. While I was working to find out what happens there and with what mechanism, I heard that NASA was also investing in biological research even though it is an institution trying to understand the space, the formation of other planets and other star systems. And I applied to NASA with a project and my application was accepted. That was how I started working at the NASA Astrobiology Institute. I worked at NASA for 4-5 years, I am now a lecturer at Harvard University. I have been recently offered Professorship of Astrobiology by Arizona University. My story is based on hard work."

Feryal Özel, another scientist from Turkey working for NASA, was a member of the team who captured the first image of a black hole. She was also the first and only person from Turkey admitted to the Hubble team.

(EMK/SD)