Having completed his secondary education at the Haydarpaşa Military Veterinary School, Süreyya Tahsin Aygün served as a veterinarian in the First World War, completed his education in 1920 and then went to Anatolia to join the War of Independence. In 1922, he was awarded the Medal of Independence. Aygün was sent to the Berlin Institute of Hygiene in Germany to receive training in “virology, bacteriology and infectious diseases.” Having received his doctorate from the Berlin Veterinary College in 1926, Aygün was awarded the titles of Associate Professor in 1934, Professor in 1937 and Ordinarius in 1944. Four years after attaining the rank of Brigadier General in 1946, he left the army and devoted himself entirely to his academic work.
The author of 18 books and 83 articles translated into various languages, Aygün, together with Adil Mustafa Şehzadebaşı, was the first to isolate the rinderpest virus and proved that the virus passes through filters. One of Aygün's most important studies was his proof that the drug containing the active ingredient thalidomide, used to prevent various skin diseases, affected brain development in embryos and, as a result, caused children to be born with phocomelia. Thousands of children around the world were being born with phocomelia and dying at an early age. When the drug arrived in Turkey from Germany, the Ministry of Health refused to license it on the grounds presented by Ordinarius Prof. Dr. Süreyya Tahsin Aygün and Prof. Dr. Şükrü Kaymakçalan. Thanks to these two inquisitive and far-sighted academics, Turkey became one of the few countries unaffected by this disaster. Ordinarius Prof. Dr. Aygün was also the first person in Turkey to conduct studies on stem cell therapy.