Prof. Dr. Mithat Özsan - Member
Professor Mithat Özsan was born in 1925 in Şebinkarahisar, where he attended primary school. He finished middle school and high school in Antalya and Istanbul. Then, in 1944, he began his higher education at Ankara University’s Faculty of Agriculture, from which he graduated in 1948 as a "High Agricultural Engineer".
In the same year in which he graduated, Mithat Özsan served as a reserve officer, completing his military service in November of 1949. He began his professional career at the Rize Tea Factory in the same month and was with this organization for five years.
In order to increase tea cultivation technology through cross-breeding and scientific means, in 1952 Mithat Özsan was sent to India and Sri Lanka for 4.5 months.
In 1954, Mithat Özsan’s application to become an assistant at Ankara University’s Faculty of Agriculture for the Studies of Fruit Cultivation and Improvement was accepted and he began his new duties in November of that year. He was awarded the Doctorate in Agriculture on 23.05.1958, Assistant Professorship on 05.11.1963, and full Professorship on 18.02.1972.
Mithat Özsan spent two years in the U.S.A. in order to arrange an academic agreement between Ankara and Nebraska Universities and also spent 10 months in Germany doing research and analysis for an academic agreement entered into by Ankara and Göttingen Universities.
Starting in 1967 (excepting the 10 months he spent in Germany), Mithat Özsan accepted a position at the Adana Faculty of Agriculture, an institution connected with Ankara University. In fact, this turned out to be not only the founding of a faculty but of an entire university; thus, Özsan found himself in the midst of the intensive efforts of the first founding team and became the university’s first full professor.
From November of 1972 to November of 1973, Mithat Özsan served as the Dean of the Adana Faculty of Agriculture; on November 30, 1973, with the signing of Turkish Law Number 1786, Çukurova University was opened and Mithat Özsan was chosen to be the first rector on December third of that year. He was elected to two consecutive terms and, after a three-year break, was elected to a third term on December 12, 1979. Later, after the signing into law of Higher Education Act 2547, he went on to serve a fourth and fifth five-year term as rector beginning July 25, 1982 and July 15, 1987, respectively.
During his one year as dean and 16 years as rector, Mithat Özsan worked closely with truly valuable faculty at Çukurova University, which, during this period, expanded exponentially in terms of its physical campus and, more importantly, academically. Professor Özsan did everything in his power to promote and support the university – an institution that is now recognized as playing a major role in the development of the country’s academic sector.
