Zehra Sayers

Zehra Sayers (born 25 September 1953) is a Turkish-British structural biologist. She has previously served as Interim President of the Sabancı University (February–November 2018) and co-chaired the scientific advisory committee for Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME). She was part of a five-scientist group that received the AAAS Award for Science Diplomacy in 2019. She holds Turkish and British citizenship. Sayers worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Open University and the Wallenberg Laboratory, Uppsala University. In 1986 she was the first woman staff scientist to be appointed to the Hamburg outstation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, where she used synchrotron radiation to study cytoskeletal proteins and chromatin. as the partner of Ahmet Evin. Her research has considered recombinant protein production, and has considered the structure of chromatin fibres and filamentous proteins. project since 2000. The light source was inaugurated in 2017 by Abdullah II of Jordan. She believes that synchrotron light sources are an effective way to integrate scientists from different disciplines and nationalities. During her time as Co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee, more than 100 young scientists were trained to use the synchrotron radiation. Sayers has worked as an advisor for the Turkish Accelerator Center Project, supported by the Turkish state.

Selected publications

Awards and honours She was awarded the EuroScience Rammal Award in 2017, which recognised her contributions to building the scientific programme of SESAME. In 2019 Sayers became the first person of joint Turkish and British citizenship to win the AAAS Award for Science Diplomacy, as part of a group of five scientists receiving the award for their contributions to SESAME. Later that year she was named as one of the BBC 100 Women in 2019.