Hikmet KOÇAK, MD

He was born in Oltu province of Erzurum in 1954. He went to primary and secondary school in Erzurum and to İstanbul Haydarpaşa High school. He graduated from Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty in 1978. He studied as a research assistant at department of cardiovascular surgery at Ataturk University in 1979-1984. He joined the military at Gata in 1984. He worked as a specialist doctor at Ankara Yüksek İhtisas Hospital. He started as an assistant professor at the department of cardiovascular surgery at Ataturk University in 1987. He got a title associate professor in 1990 and professor in 1995. He had been at Londra St.Thomas Hospital as an observer in 1989 and at Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 1992. He operated the first bypass coronary surgery in Erzurum in 1988. He won the “ Assoc Prof.Dr. Edip Kürklü Prize”in 1993. He became the Rector of Ataturk University between 2008-2016. He conducted the founder president of Turkish Universities Association and Eurasian Silk Road Universities Consortium during this period. He got the honorary doctorate title of Tbilisi Medical University, Karagandy Bolashak University and Nakhichevan Universities. After leaving Ataturk University, he started as a teaching staff at department of cardiovascular surgery at Uskudar University in 2021.