İhsan Ketin

İhsan Ketin (10 April 1914 – 16 December 1995) was a Turkish earth scientist. Born in Kayseri in 1914, he pursued higher education in Germany on a state scholarship. He completed his undergraduate studies in Natural Sciences at Berlin University in 1934 and obtained his doctorate in geology from Bonn University in 1938, under the supervision of Hans Cloos. This made him the first native of Turkey to hold a doctorate in geology in the Republic of Turkey. He returned to Turkey in 1938 and began his academic career as an assistant professor at the Geological Institute of Istanbul Technical University. A significant event in his career was the study of the North Anatolian fault, which became active with major earthquakes in 1939. Ketin's research on this fault led to its importance being recognized and earned him the Gustav-Steinmann-Medaille in 1988. In 1953, he became the chair of General Geology at Istanbul Technical University. He also published a notable comparison of the San Andreas and North Anatolian faults in the same year. Ketin's contributions extended to the International Tectonic Map of Europe, where he described Turkey as an orogen accreted from north to south, influencing subsequent tectonic models. He retired from teaching in 1983 but remained as professor emeritus until his death in 1995. Ketin was noted for his exceptional memory.