'Made me proud': Turkish Nobel laureate attends Teknofest in Istanbul

Turkey's Nobel laureate in chemistry Aziz Sancar on Friday attended the top-notch technology event Teknofest, and said that it "made me really proud."

"I came here to promote science and technology in Turkey and the Turkish world. What I saw here really made me proud and encouraged me," he said in his address in Istanbul.

Future Nobel prize winners, Sancar said, can come out of Teknofest, and he advised everyone to work for humanity. "Do science, do technology," the scientist encouraged.

He called on the youth to "work hard, stay determined even when things do not go well, and work with the mindset of 'either I conquer it or it conquers me' as Mehmet the Conqueror (Ottoman sultan) said."

"Do not forget the love for your country. Nothing can be done without it," he said.

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

The six-day Teknofest at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, which began on Tuesday, will wrap up on Sunday. It is an annual exhibition on commercialization of patents, inventions, and new products.

Last year, the event was organized virtually in the southeastern Gaziantep province due to coronavirus restrictions.

Anadolu Agency has been the event's global communication partner since 2018.