Dear readers of the Hacettepe Journal of Biology and Chemistry,

Interest to our journal is increasing every year with the valuable contributions of scientists from our country and throughout the World. I am sure that we will continue to have excellent articles of diverse scientific areas from the scientists who were dedicated themselves to the research. Having worked on DNA repair mechanisms with about four decades Aziz Sancar won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015. For scientists there is no other prize with the prestige of the Nobel Prize. In this age in which we are gradually losing interest to the basic sciences, the winning of Nobel Prize by a Turkish scientist, Aziz Sancar, in the Chemistry field become an invaluable moral and proud for us. We expect this will rekindle the youth’s interests to the basic sciences. Another important point of this success is “for the first time a scientist who graduated from Turkish Universities won the Nobel Prize”. In his every speech he put emphasis on the quality of the education he got in Turkey, which started with the republican revolution, from primary school to the university. Shortly after winning of Nobel Prize, Aziz Sancar declared that he would donate his medal and certificate to the Anıtkabir Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on 19 May 2016. During the scope of this visit, he hosted by several universities, colleges and scientific institutions in Turkey. He also kindly visited Hacettepe University, Chemistry Department. In his visit to the Chemistry Department he listened young researchers from various research groups with a great attention and patience for about one hour. In this historical day make a present of the Aziz Sancar special issue of Hacettepe Journal of Biology and Chemistry to him and also get a sign for this issue from Aziz Sancar will be a great memory for us. We express Aziz Sancar our wishes of health for further success, and joyful laboratory researches for many more years.

Adil Denizli, PhD

Editor