The formative years of M.A. Kağıtçı, industrial chemist and paper engineer

Şeref Etker

Mehmet Ali Kağıtçı (1899-1982), a leading figure in the emergence of modern paper industry in Turkey, began his studies in 1919 at the Faculty of Sciences of the Darülfünun, the institution of higher education, which was later transformed to the Istanbul University.

As the German academic staff at the Faculty of Science left Istanbul following the armistice ending World War I, the task of teaching industrial and biochemistry -- subjects of primary interest for Kağıtçı - fell on professor Dr. Cevad Mazhar who was to became his mentor. Kağıtçı completed his chemistry training in 1922 and soon after he was nominated assistant to Cevad Mazhar. In postgraduate work, Mehmet Ali Kağıtçı focused exclusively on paper manufacturing and went to Germany in 1925 and France in 1926 to study the processing techniques of cellulose. He left his academic post in early 1927 to complete his degree of "Ingénieur papetier" in Grenoble. Kağıtçı devoted his career to paper production in Turkey, and expressed his dedication to his profession by choosing Kağıtçı (papermaker) as his family name.