EMU Faculty of Pharmacy Academic Staff Member Receives an Award From TÜMBİFED

Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Faculty of Pharmacy academic staff member Prof. Dr. F. Neriman Özhatay has been deemed worthy of one of the Academy Culture and Science Awards given by the Federation of All Bureaucrats and Business People (TÜMBİFED) for the project of producing plant bulbs and medicinal and aromatic plants in the field of agriculture.

Engaged in various projects to provide solutions to important problems of Turkey and the community,  TÜMBİFED is a non-governmental organisation which hosts 34 national and international commissions within its structure. Consisting of 25 professors who are experts in their fields, TÜMBİFED Academy Culture and Science Commission provides awards for projects that contribute to humanity as a result of work that lasts for months. In this context, awards have been given in 20 branches such as Media, Sports, Books, Education Health NGO, Cinema, History, Agriculture and Music.

The Domestic Production Project (IPP), which is the subject of the award, is the international production project of Galanthus and Leucojum, both an ornamental plant and a medicinal plant. The said project was conducted in Dumlugöze Village of Sarıveliler district of Karaman province under the consultancy of Prof. Dr. Özhatay.  Prof. Dr. Özhatay discovered and introduced 62 new natural plant species to the world with numerous projects on bulbous plants and medicinal and aromatic plants, which will revolutionize the country's ornamental plants sector. (Allium istanbulense, Allium ılgasense, Allium erzincanicum). Prof. Dr. Özhatay has also immortalized the said work with many plant names that are named after her. (Crocus nerimanea, Allium nerimanea). 

Prof. Dr. Özhatay has 162 scientific articles in which new species are introduced and published in internationally indexed journals and 30 books in which natural plants of Istanbul provinces and districts are introduced. Prof. Dr. Özhatay is one of the authors of the 11th volume of the book the Flora of Turkey. Moreover, she has two books (in English and Turkish) on Turkey's Important Plant Areas International Project and the protection and promotion of rare and endemic plants on Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline. With this work, Turkey has become the first country in Europe identifying important plant areas.