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About AGS Foundation

Aziz and Gwen Sancar Foundation (AGS Foundation) is organized primarily for educational and charitable purposes to increase understanding of Turkey, and to promote closer ties between United States and Turkey. Established in 2007, it is a 501 (c) (3), non-profit organization, with an EIN # 26-0871109.

In the broad sense, the purpose of the organization is to establish a Turkish Student Center (Carolina Turkish House) in close proximity to the university campus.

Aziz Sancar, PhD - Emeritus Chairman of the Board (Chapel Hill, NC)

Aziz Sancar, MD PhD is Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He was born in Savur-Mardin, Turkey in 1946. He obtained his primary and secondary education in Savur and Mardin, and then received an M.D. degree in 1969 from the Istanbul University School of Medicine. After practicing medicine in Savur for two years he attended the University of Texas at Dallas and obtained a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology in 1977 with his work on DNA repair. Dr.Sancar conducted postdoctoral work at Yale university on molecular biology of DNA repair in the period 1977-1982. He joined the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UNC Chapel Hill in 1982 where he has been conducting research on DNA Repair, Cell Cycle and cancer treatment, and the Biological Clock. He has published 288 research articles and 33 book chapters. Prof. Sancar is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences USA, a Member of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Member of Turkish Academy of Sciences and the recipient of the Vehbi Koc Award from the Koc Foundation of Turkey in 2007. Aziz Sancar lives in Chapel Hill with his wife Gwen Sancar, also a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Gwen Sancar, PhD - President (Chapel Hill, NC)

Gwen Sancar, Ph.D. is Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine. Born in Waco , Texas , she attended public schools there, and in 1972 graduated with a B.S. in Biology from the Waco campus of Baylor University . Dr. Gwen Sancar entered the graduate program at the University of Texas at Dallas in 1972 and, after 4.5 years of study on the mechanism of DNA replication in Physarum polycephalum, she was awarded the Ph.D. in 1977. She performed postdoctoral research at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn , New York , for three years, during which she elucidated the arrangement of globin genes in alpha-thalassemia in African Americans and Ashkenazi Jews. In 1980 she joined her husband, at Yale University , where they collaborated on studies on the regulation of DNA repair genes in E. coli. Dr. Gwen Sancar joined the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UNC Chapel Hill in 1982. In addition to carrying out research in DNA repair enzymology and on the regulation of genes in response to DNA damage, and publishing over 40 original articles and book chapters on these topics, she has been very active in graduate and undergraduate education and in promoting research experiences for undergraduate student. Dr. Gwen Sancar hopes that Turk Evi will be a catalyst to promote understanding of Turkey , its people , and its contributions to the cultural heritage of the world by her fellow Americans.

Bülent Ender, M.D. - Chairman of the Board (Raleigh, NC)

Dr. Bülent Ender is a gastroenterologist at Wake Gastroenterology. He has been on the staff of Rex Hospital of Raleigh, North Carolina since 1993. Dr. Ender is a member of multiple medical societies including the American Gastroenterological Association and the American College of Physicians.

Bülent is an active member of the Turkish-American community in the Triangle area and is a founding member and the Chairman of the Board of Bridge to Turkiye Fund. He also manages BTF's Endowment Fund, established with Board of Directors' charitable contributions. Bulent lives in west Raleigh with his wife Deniz, and enjoys tennis, cycling, swimming and traveling.

Emin Pamucak, MS. EE - Treasurer (Cary, NC)

Emin Pamucak was born in 1959 in Kütahya, Turkey to immigrant families from Ottoman Turkish towns in Bulgaria and Greece. After receiving his elementary school education in Karadeniz Eregli and Ankara, Emin attended middle school and high school in suburban metropolitan Washington, D.C. He holds BS and MS degrees in engineering from Bogazici University and University of Maryland. Employed by IBM and LENOVO at various corporate capacities since 1984, he has worked at company locations in Minnesota, New York, Connecticut and most recently North Carolina.

A firm believer in "by and for" grassroots civic representation, Emin is involved in community development and advocacy with emphasis in promoting citizen based initiatives and social responsibility. He feels privileged to be a product of two cultures and has been an active member of ATA North Carolina since 1996, serving his community as the President of the Association from 2001 to 2004. He has received Association's Distinguished Member and Distinguished Leader Awards. In 2004, ATA North Carolina was recognized as ATAA's Component Association of the Year. In the fall of 2005, Emin was also recognized by the Daughters of Ataturk with a Man of Outstanding Accomplishment Award. He has also served the Turkish-American community as ATAA Vice President for the South Eastern United States from 2004 to 2006. Emin is a founding member and the President of Bridge to Turkiye Fund. Emin lives in Cary with his wife Ayse.

Ismail Arslan, BS - Vice-President for Fund Raising (High Point, NC)

Ismail Arslan was born in 1958 in Ispir, Erzurum and has lived more than half of his life outside his home country. He holds a B.Sc. in Business Administration from Kennedy Western University in CA.
He is currently employed by De Leo Textiles (New Jersey) as Vice President of Business Development and heavily involved with High Point (NC) Furniture Market. Ismail is a strong supporter and volunteer of community non-profit organizations. He is a long time member of American Turkish Association of NC, serves in the BOD's of Bridge to Türkiye Fund (BTF), ITMA-Showtime, country's premier and the only textile market as Vice President.

He is married and has three children and two grandchildren, lives in High Point, NC since 2001.

Nihat Çubukcu, PhD - Vice-President for Public Relations (Cary, NC)

Nihat Cubukcu is a Senior Scientist at Weather Predict Consulting Inc. a subsidiary of Renaissance Reinsurance. He was born in 1973 in Macka-Trabzon Turkey. After completing his elementary school at his village in 1983, he got accepted to a boarding school in Trabzon and spent 6 years there until the end of high school. Upon finishing his high school at Affan Kitapcioglu in 1989, he was placed in Meteorological Engineering Department at Technical University of Istanbul. Soon after he received his BS degree, he was awarded by Turkish Ministry of Education with a Scholarship to work on his graduate studies in USA. After spending a year on English, he got accepted to Florida State University in 1995. Two years later, he got his MS degree from Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute at Florida State University in 1997. He completed his graduate studies in 2001 and earned the PhD in Meteorology. His field of expertise is on Computational Geophysical Dynamics, Numerical Modeling, Geophysical Hazard/Risk Analysis, and Climate Change. He has various publications in prestigious journals that deal with geophysical sciences. He worked on many scientific projects with NOAA, IBM, NASA and various other research Institutions. In addition to his scientific background, he has been very active volunteer at many non-profit organizations since his university years. He is the current President of American Turkish Association of North Carolina (ata-nc.org) and active volunteer of Bridge to Turkiye Fund. He is married with a daughter and lives in Cary North Carolina.

Fevzi Yalın, MBA - Secretary (Elon, NC)

Fevzi Yalın was born in Nicosia, Cyprus to a Turkish Cypriot family. He spent his formative years in Cyprus. He completed his BS in Engineering in Saudi Arabia and obtained a MBA degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has spent over 30 years as an Information Technology professional, working for VF Corporation and Nissan in the manufacturing industry and IBM, EDS and HP in the information services industry. He is currently an IT Project Manager for Carolina Biological Supply Company in Burlington, NC. He also holds professional certifications in Project Management (PMP®) and IT Service Management (ITIL®).

Fevzi is passionate about the equality of rights for persons regardless of their race, gender, ethnic and religious background. He promotes open dialogue in finding common ground in resolving conflicts. As a firm believer that history repeats itself, in his spare time, he is working on a compilation of his journalist father's broadcasts and news transcripts ranging from 1960s to 1990s.

After having worked in Virginia, Tennessee and California, his family settled in North Carolina. He is married and has two daughters attending NC State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He resides in Elon, NC.

A lifelong dream project for Drs. Aziz and Gwen Sancar, two professors at UNC-CH, the idea of a Turk Evi by a university campus goes back many years. "The day I stepped off the airplane in Dallas-Texas, I essentially saw the need for such a house on college campuses and promised myself to eventually dedicate my resources to a project of this kind" said Dr. Sancar, proudly after the purchase of the property.

The Carolina Turk Evi is owned by the Aziz & Gwen Sancar Foundation (AGS Foundation) of Chapel Hill. The mission of AGS Foundation is to establish a permanent Turkish Center in close proximity to the campus of UNC-CH. The center will provide graduate housing for Four Turkish researchers at UNC-CH, as well as short term guest services for Turkish visiting scholars. UNC-CH currently hosts approximately 100 Turkish students and scholars. These individuals often initially have difficulty adapting to American culture. Carolina Turk Evi will facilitate their transition.

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Aziz and Gwen Sancar Foundation (AGS Foundation) is organized primarily for educational and charitable purposes to increase understanding of Turkey, and to promote closer ties between United States and Turkey. Established in 2007, it is a 501 (c) (3), non-profit organization, with an EIN # 26-0871109.

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 In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Tomas Lindahl and Paul L. Modrich for their mechanistic studies of DNA repair.

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 In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Tomas Lindahl and Paul L. Modrich for their mechanistic studies of DNA repair.

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Aziz Sancar (born 8 September 1946) is a Turkish-American biochemist and molecular biologist specializing in DNA repair, cell cycle checkpoints, and circadian clock.

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Aziz Sancar (born 8 September 1946) is a Turkish-American biochemist and molecular biologist specializing in DNA repair, cell cycle checkpoints, and circadian clock.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/science/tomas-lindahl-paul-modrich-aziz-sancarn-nobel-chemistry.html
https://www.med.unc.edu/biochem/news/aziz-sancar-receives-2015-nobel-prize-in-chemistry
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2015/popular-chemistryprize2015.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aziz_Sancar