History

The Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences was established in 1962-1963. Since there were no faculty members in the initial stage, Astronomy courses were taught by the faculty members from Ankara and Istanbul Universities.

Assoc. Dr. Abdullah Kızılırmak and As. Dr. Rümeysa Kızılırmak who were academic staffs in Ankara University, Faculty of Science taught courses as a guest lecturer between 4 - 31 October 1962, and Assoc. Prof. Muammer Dizer from Istanbul Kandilli Observatory taught courses as a guest lecturer between 3 - 27 December 1972. Furthermore, Dr. Flecktenstein worked at the astronomy chair as a foreign expert between October 15, 1962 and January 11, 1963. The Astronomy Department has become an independent department on 8 January  1963. In the same year, Sezai Hazer (19 February 1963), M. Ünal Akyol (28 February 1963), Şükrü Bozkurt (September 23, 1963), İlhami Yavuz (26 September 1963) started working as an academic staff.  Due to the lack of academic staff, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Adnan Kıral and Assoc. Metin Hotinli worked as a guest lecturer between 1963 - 1964.

Prof. Dr. Abdullah Kızılırmak

Then Prof. Dr. Hans Kienle, started working on the astronomy chair on November 1, 1965. Since then Prof. Dr. Kienle has carried out his productive teaching and research activities in our department and observatory. American Prof. Dr. T. L. Swihart,(1969-1970) and Prof. Dr. R. H. Wilson (1971-1972 and 1972-1973) was a contracted lecturer in different academic years.

Since its establishment, the Department of Astronomy and Space Science has been carrying out scientific activities at national and international level, educating astronomers who can carry out their scientific researches, and responding to the public's interest in astronomy.

Our observatory, which was established in 1965 as a part of the department, gained legal personality in 1967 under the name of “Ege University Observatory” affiliated with the Faculty of Science. Ege University Observatory was transformed into Ege University Astronomy Research Institute in 1976 and into Ege University Astronomy Research and Application Center affiliated to the Faculty of Science in 1982. In 1983, as in all other centers in universities, all academic staff at this center were canceled and no new positions could be allocated. After this date, the Observatory continued its duty as a laboratory where observations regarding educational and scientific studies were made, depending on the Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences. Our Observatory still continues to serve scientific studies as the "Observatory Application and Research Center" affiliated with the Rectorate of Ege University.