Aziz Sancar who was born in Mardin on September 8, 1946 received his primary, secondary and high school education in his native city. He graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine in 1963 with first degree. After completing his studies at the Medical School of Savur in the town of Mardin for two years and then Dallas, Dallas, Texas, University of Texas Molecular Biology and then PhD degree in DNA repair at Yale University has completed his thesis. He became one of the three Turks to be accepted into the American National Academy of Sciences by his studies abroad. Sancar, who worked at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina in the USA, wrote 415 scientific papers.
He was elected to the American National Academy of Sciences in 2005 and was the first Turk to be elected to this academy. In 2006, Turkey has been selected as members of the royal Academy of Sciences.
Aziz Sancar, a Turkish scientist who has made a name for himself worldwide with his studies on cancer, signed the bilim circadian clock (rhythmic clock) m invention in cancer treatment in 2014. Sancar pointed out that their work would be beneficial in the prevention of skin cancer, and stated that at what time of sunbathing, when the risk of cancer was increased, it could be determined which times decreased.