Fahire Battalgil (1902 - 1948) was a Turkish ichthyologist who was one of the first women to be appointed as a professor at a university in Turkey.
Name
Battalgil was known as Fahire Akim Hanim during the early part of her life. The surname Battalgil was adopted by her family to comply with the
Republic of Turkey's 1934
Surname Law Surname law can refer to any law regulating the use of surnames.
Canada
From 1941 to 1978, the Government of Canada issued disc numbers to identify Inuit in their records. In the mid-1960s Project Surname began, and, headed by Abe Okpik, Inuit ...
and the spelling of this was changed to Battalgazi from 1943.
Early life
Fahire Akim Hanim was born in Istanbul in 1902, she attended the French school of Notre Dame de Sion in
Damascus where her father, Dr Etem Akif Bey, had attended. Her secondary school was the Bezmi Alem High School from where she graduated in 1924. She graduated from the
Darülfünun in 1926 with a qualification in Natural Science.
Career
From April 1926 to October 1927 Fahire Akim Hanim had a position at the Tercan Vocational School, now part of
Erzincan University where she was assigned to the Faculty of Science on 1 June 1927, being appointed as an assistant in the Institute of Zoology in August 1927. In 1931-32 she went to study at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
in Paris in the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. In 1933, following the reform of Turkish universities, she was appointed as an Associate Professor of Zoology at the University of Istanbul. In November 1935 she participated in an expedition organised by the Fisheries Institute, and many such thereafter. With her colleague Suat Nigar she translated the lectures of Professor Andre Naville and after his sudden death in 1937 she took those lectures herself. In 1937 she became a full Associate Professor, under the German Zoologist
Curt Kosswig
Dr. Curt Kosswig (sometimes spelled "Koßwig") (30 October 1903, Berlin – 29 March 1982, Hamburg) was a German zoologist and geneticist who spent most of his career at the University of Istanbul (1937–1955) and Hamburg University (1955–1969) ...
, and in 1944 she became a full professor. She was Turkey's first zoology doctor and first zoology professor. She died on 20 February 1948 in Istanbul and is buried in a family plot in a cemetery in
Beşiktaş.
Legacy
Battalgil was an important figure in Turkish ichthyology discovering a number of new species for Turkey and
describing a number of new species of fish to science. Examples include ''
Alburnus adanensis
The Adana bleak (''Alburnus adanensis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae, endemic to the Ceyhan and Seyhan river watersheds in Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye ...
'', ''
Barbus oligolepis
The Marmara barbel (''Barbus oligolepis'') is a species of cyprinid fish endemism, endemic to Turkey where it is only known from fast flowing waters with substrates of stones or pebbles. This species can reach a length of fish measurement, SL.
...
'', ''
Pseudophoxinus caralis'' and ''
Squalius cephaloides''. Species named in honour of Battalgil include ''
Cobitis fahireae'', ''
Phoxinellus fahirae'' and ''
Alburnus battalgilae''.
Publications
This is an incomplete list of publications:
*1940 Eine neue Cyprinidenart
eni bir Cyprinid nev'i Revue de la Faculté des Sciences de l'Université d'Istanbul, Série B: Sciences Naturelles, 5 (1-2): 74-77 (1-4).
*1941 Les poissons des eaux douces de la Turquie
ürkiye'nin tatlısu balıkları Revue de la Faculté des Sciences de l'Université d'Istanbul, Série B: Sciences Naturelles, 6 (1-2): 170–186.
*1944. Türkiye'de yeni tath su bahklari. Nouveau poissons des eaux douces de la Turquie. ''Revue de la Faculté des Sciences de l'Université d'Instanbul, Série B: Sciences Naturelles,'' 9(2)
943 126–133
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battalgil, Fahire
1902 births
1948 deaths
Turkish zoologists
Ichthyologists
Women ichthyologists
Turkish women scientists
20th-century zoologists