Nobel laureate Aziz Sancar receives his award

STOCKHOLM / OSLO

2015 Nobel chemistry laureate Professor Aziz Sancar receives his award from King Carl Gustaf of Sweden during the 2015 Nobel prize award ceremony in Stockholm Concert Hall December 10, 2015. REUTERS/Jonas Ekstromer/TT News Agency

Turkish scientist Aziz Sancar, the 2015 Nobel laureate in chemistry, received his prize at a ceremony held in Stockholm, on a day that Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet were also presented their Nobel Peace Prizes in Oslo. 

Sancar, who works at the University of North Carolina, was among three scientists awarded the prize for their work on DNA repair. Sancar won the prize along with Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich for his work in mapping the cells which repair ultraviolet damage to DNA. Their research was an important step for treating cancer.

“I have observed in the U.S. [during my studies] how important it is for girls to be educated,” the laureate said at a ceremony in Stockholm a day earlier. Meanwhile, Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet urged the international community to make the global fight against terrorism an “absolute priority,” upon receiving its Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo.

“Today, we are in a great need of dialogue between civilizations, and peaceful coexistence... Today, we need to make the fight against terrorism an absolute priority,” said Houcine Abassi, secretary general of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), one of the four members of the quartet.

At Oslo’s City Hall, which was decked out in flowers, Abassi denounced the “barbaric and heinous terrorist acts” in recent months in Tunisia and around the world, pointing to Paris, Beirut, Sharm el-Sheikh and Bamako.