Name, Surname : Prof. Erol Çerasi
Date & Place of Birth: 1935; İstanbul
Date of Aliya : 1977
Marital Status : Widow
Schools Attended : Şişli Terakki High School (1942- 1954); Istanbul University Medical School (1954 – 1960) (MD); Stockholm Karolinska Medical Institute (1961 – 1964) (MD); Stockholm Karolinska Institute, PhD in Biology (1962 – 1967)
Profession : Medical doctor and researcher
CV: Immediately after graduating from the Medical School in 1960, Prof. Çerasi went to Sweden with his wife Kler Sages, to study endocrinology in the most famous institute of the time, the Stockholm Karolinska Institute Hospital.
Since the Swedish Ministry of Health did not recognize his Turkish diploma, he studied at the clinical department again and passing the exams obtained a local license of medical doctor. Simultaneously he started research on diabetes with his director Prof. Rolf Luft. Due to the successfully progressing research, he decided to stay in Sweden but lost his Turkish citizenship due to military service issues and became a Swedish citizen.
He became an associate professor in 1968 and deputy professor in 1971 at the Karolinska Institute. He worked as a guest professor at the Institute of Biochemistry of the University of Geneva between 1973-75. In 1976, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem invited him to establish a chair in endocrinology, diabetes care and research at the Hadassah Medical Center. Prof. Çerasi accepted the invitation in 1977 and settled in Jerusalem.
His friends, professors at Ankara Hacettepe Medical Academy who were also military generals, assisted him in regaining his Turkish citizenship in 2002. He is currently a Turkish and Swedish citizen. He retired in 2003, left his university and hospital administrative duties, as well as patient care, and became a retired professor. On the other hand, he continues to assist his old and new colleagues in diabetes research in the laboratory he established.
Works / Publications: More than 300 international scientific publications, up to 25 editorships.
Institutions Founded / Worked / Supported: Endocrinology, diabetes care and research dept. at Hadassah Medical Organization. He founded the prestigious Servier-IGIS Symposia (Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat, France) and chaired it for 20 years (2000-2019).
Outstanding and lasting contribution / Reasons for Selection: He is the scientist who established the basic science of type 2 diabetes and the treatment in Israel at a modern level and raised today's top leaders in the field. The causes of type 2 diabetes, the working mechanisms of the beta cell, and the ideas he developed on the optimal diabetes treatment since his Stockholm years have entered the classical medical literature.
His importance for medical science has been internationally recognized:
In Europe: European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Minkowski Award (1974); President of the Scandinavian Diabetes Research Society (1975-1977); Honorary Doctorate of the Université Catholique de Louvain (Brussels) (2002); EASD Honorary Member (2006); Research Consultant (2015-2021) to EU Research Consortium RHAPSODY (diabetes research consortium including 20 universities and 4 giant pharmaceutical companies).
In Turkey: Turkish Diabetes Association Honorary Member (1995); T.R. TÜBİTAK Science Award (2006); Head of Turkey's National Diabetes Congress (2008); Honorary Doctorate from Erciyes University (2013).
In Israel: President of the Israeli Endocrinology Society (1996-2000); Outstanding Researcher in Medicine - Elkeles Award (2000); Israel Endocrinology Society Lifetime Achievement Certificate (2015).
留言