Şevket Aziz Kansu

Şevket Aziz Kansu (1903, Edirne–1983, Ankara) was a Turkish physician and academic. He specialised in anthropology and archaeology and was the first rector of Ankara University.

Education and academic career Kansu was born in Edirne. He studied medicine at Istanbul University, graduating in 1923. In 1927, after completing compulsory government service and working as a medical doctor for two years in Bala, Ankara, he went to Paris to study anthropology. He received a diploma in anthropological sciences from the Sorbonne in 1929.

He was a member of the Turkish Academy of Medicine, the Turkish Language Association, the Society of Anthropology of Paris, the Society of Anthropology of Rome, the German Archaeological Institute, the Florence Society of Anthropology and the Turkish Society of Cancerology. Between 1962 and 1973, he was the president of Turkish Historical Society.

Kansu died on 10 April 1983, in Ankara.