Our First Scholar with Ph.D. in Astronomy and Mathematics in the Ottomans: Arakel Garabed Sivasliyan

Arakel Garabed Sivaslian , who was born as a son of an Armenian family in the village of Mancusun in Kayseri in 1858, was the first person in the Ottomans who had ever received a Ph. D. degree in Astronomy and Mathematics. Having achieved a lot of things during his life with the help of his great intelligence and efforts, A. G. Sivaslian chose Anatolia College in Merzifon (Marsovan), to which he dedicated the rest of his life indeed as the next destination for himself after Kayseri. After he had completed his religious education in Anatolia College, which was an American missionary school, he started teaching in this school. He was sent to Carleton College and Goodsell Observatory in America by Anatolia College in 1890 to get a higher degree in Mathematics and Astronomy. He carried out some studies, particularly on Astronomy in America and took photographs of the sky by making observations in Goodsell Observatory. Some of these photographs were published in the magazine of Popular Astronomy. A. G. Sivaslian, who was appreciated by his instructors, also went on keeping in touch with his instructors in America and scientific studies with them after having returned to Merzifon until he passed away