An Interview with Celal Sengor: The Life and Worldview of a Distinguished Turkish Scientist

Prof. Dr. Ali Mehmet Celâl Şengör (born 24 March 1955) is a distinguished Turkish scientist whose main field of expertise is geology, but he also has studies in the philosophy of science, history of science, and world history. Being a part of faculty at Istanbul Technical University Department of Geological Engineering, he is also a member of the Turkish Geomorphological Association, US National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Russian Academy of Sciences, American Geolphysical Union, Geological Society of Malaysia, Geologische Vereinigung (also a recipient of Gustav-Steinmann-Medaille), and a fellow of Geological Society of America, Geological Society of London, Société Géologique de France, as well as an honorary member of Österreichische Geologische Gesellschaft. He is the author of many well-received books, a distinguished lecturer, and has 3 fossils named after him. Dr. Şengör describes his research interests as follows: "As a geologist, I am interested in the elucidation of the processes involved in the growth and structuration of the continental lithosphere. To that end, I have studied the history of now-vanished oceans. One of these oceans, the Tethys, formed the present Alpine-Himalayan mountain ranges. From a study of the Tethys, I learned that continental collision can disrupt the colliding continents, thereby creating such diverse structures as large extensional troughs (called rifts) and major strike-slip faults; additionally, the architectural style of the collisional mountain range depends on the size of the vanished ocean. Following up the latter discovery, my group has shown that much of central and north Asia is made up of material offscraped during the closure of another large ocean leading to significant continental growth 600 to 150 million years ago. The architectural style that evolved as a consequence was typical of the oldest pieces of the continental crust formed and structured some 3.5 billion years ago. I have also studied the relationships of rifting to mantle processes from the viewpoint of identifying unequivocal geological fingerprints of the latter, using mainly the East African rifts system as an example." Evrim Ağacı (https://evrimagaci.org) is the largest and most visited Turkish popular science organization, that aims to educate the Turkish public on a vast variety of sciences with a special focus on evolutionary biology and its applications. Evrim Ağacı means "Tree of Evolution" in Turkish, it is a reference to the depiction of the evolutionary relationship of species arranged in a "tree" form. Evrim Ağacı, founded November 5, 2010 is the oldest, most reliable, and most visited popular science website of Turkey. Evrim Ağacı creates science content in a lot of formats, including popular science articles, educational videos, informational photos, and novel platforms like board games. This is all accomplished through our website, Facebook Page, Facebook Group, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, Evrim Ağacı reaches millions of people monthly in Turkey, Azerbeijan, Germany, Austria, USA, and Canada. One of the biggest goals of the organization is to become a respected science organization with its roots in Turkey to promote science in Turkey and in the international arena. As a vision, Evrim Ağacı hopes to improve the scientific understanding in and outside of Turkey. You can support Evrim Ağacı at Kreosus (https://kreosus.com/evrimagaci2), Patreon (  / evrimagaci  , or on YouTube. The main host, Dr. Ashlee Lane Bakırcı-Taylor received her BS, MS and PhD degrees from Texas Tech University Department of Nutritional Sciences and she is the science outreach coordinator, staff writer, and editor at Evrim Ağacı. The second host, Dr. Çağrı Mert Bakırcı-Taylor, is the founder, editor-in-chief, and CEO of Evrim Ağacı. He received his PhD from Texas Tech University Department of Mechanical Engineering and the author of various best-selling science books in Turkey.