PROF. DR. İLHAN TEKELİ WINS THE 19TH VEHBİ KOÇ AWARD

The Vehbi Koç Foundation gives out the Vehbi Koç Award every year in one of three fields -culture, education, or health- in order to encourage people and institutions who/that contribute to improving quality of life. This year, the award was in the field of culture, and went to Prof. Dr. İlhan Tekeli for his many projects on the social sciences and urban planning. Professor Tekeli is the single most cited name in the aforementioned disciplines, albeit in the Turkish language. To date, he has published over 660 articles and memos on urban development, regional development, social systems, macro geography, local administration, economic policies, urban, and municipal history, education planning, the philosophy of science, and historiography. Tarih Vakfı (The History Foundation) has published his works in a 26-volume set. A foundation in Professor Tekeli’s namethe İlhan Tekeli Foundation-was established in February 2018, with contributions by his former students. The foundation carries out important research that seeks to understand the development and transformation of urban settlements as well as to find ways to develop human rights, democracy, and quality of living in urban environments. It also hosts the Ilhan Tekeli Urban Development Biennale in Ankara.