Faculty of Sciences, one of the oldest faculties of our university, was established in 1933. The faculty consists of the Departments of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Biology, Physics, and Mathematics. Four separate diplomas are bestowed and research is undertaken on sciences in these departments. The Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences trains its students through an eight-term (four years) graduate programme that comprises courses in mathematics, physics, and computer, as well as astronomy and space sciences.
The department, which has facilities like astrographs, Lyot filters, telescopes, photometers, micro-photometers, and computer laboratories, researches into such fields as small planets, the sun, triple colour photometry, star astrophysics, the structure of the galaxy, and cosmology, in coordination with various universities in the United States of America. Information on the universe and the sky is made available to the public through a number of activities. The project of a planetarium is in the process of completion.
Department of Biology teaches, during a three-year period, joint courses in biology, after which, in their fourth year, the students select, according to their fields of interest, one of the seven proposed package programmes and take their first steps towards specialization. Research on the subjects such as flora-fauna systematic, morphology, ecology, cytology, histology, physiology, microbiology, radiobiology, hydrobiology, molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry is undertaken in well-equipped laboratories, with facilities like the latest appliances and electron microscopes. Some of the work is done through international cooperation and some through projects sponsored by national institutions. Department has a Botanical Garden and a Herbarium, a Zoology Museum and a Hydrobiology Museum used for research purposes.
Department of Physics the first of its kind in Turkey. The undergraduate programme is completed in four years. During the first seven terms, students study joint courses after which they have to choose between two groups of courses. The department undertakes joint international projects, experimental and theoretical work, and aims to prepare its students as well-rounded physicists on graduation.
The Department of Mathematics equips its students with the basic knowledge of mathematics and endows them with competence in thinking mathematically and an ability to solve mathematics problems. After a three-year period of joint courses, students are asked to choose between two programmes. A great number of internationally acclaimed mathematicians, such as Prof. Cahit Arf, have been educated at this department.
Faculty of Sciences
