TÜBA Council Member Prof. H. Fahrettin Keleştimur has been Elected as a Board of Directors Member in the International Pituitary Society
TÜBA Council Member and Erciyes University Rector Prof. Dr. Fahrettin Keleştimur was elected as a Board of Directors Member in the International Pituitary Society as a result of an online vote among members at the FK Pituitary Society Conference held on March 2-4, 2015 in San Diego (USA).
Fahrettin Keleştimur will be starting his service to the Society’s Board of Directors on July 1, 2015. Some of the responsibilities he has undertaken include organizing meetings on the subject of pituitary disorders, educational programs for patients, preparing booklets on the subject, managing the ‘Pituitary’ journal and creating centers of excellence throughout the world on the subject of pituitary disorders.
Who is Prof. Dr. H. Fahrettin Keleştimur?
H. Fahrettin Keleştimur, who was born in Elazığ in 1955, graduated from the Elazığ Atatürk High School in 1972 and completed the Hacettepe University Medical Faculty in 1979. In 1980-1984 after completing his specialty in internal medicine at the Erciyes University Medical Faculty, he did his military service and compulsory vocational service in Erzurum and Gediz-Kütahya respectively. In 1988 he started to work at the Erciyes University Medical Faculty Internal Medicine Specialty Branch as an assistant associate professor and was assigned with the task of establishing an endocrinology department. In the same year he worked at the Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty endocrinology department and then in 1990 at the London University St. Bartholomew Hospital endocrinology department to further his education. In 1990 he became an associate professor and in 1995 he achieved the title of professor. With his main areas of interest in neuroendocrinology and reproductive endocrinology, H. Fahrettin Keleştimur has concentrated his work in recent years on endocrine response to stress and especially the brain damage caused by head trauma and the neuroendocrinologic changes that develop in connection to this. Keleştimur and his team were able to show for the first time that pituitary failure can develop in athletes who do combat sports. These findings have been accepted as “endocrine discovery”.
He is still on the editing board of many national and international journals (Growth Hormone and IGF Research, Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes, Expert Review of Endocrinology and Metabolism, World Journal of Diabetes, Hormones Journal, Endocrine, Clinical Endocrinology, Frontiers in Pituitary Endocrinology, British Journal of Medicine and Medical Research). Due to his work in “Stress-related bodily disorders” he was invited as a guest teacher to Trier University Psychobiology Department twice in August 2002 and May 2005, to the Oxford University Medical Faculty Endocrinology Department in May of 2006 for his work on “Polycystic ovary syndrome” and to the Cleveland Clinic Endocrinology Department in March 2007 for his work on “Non-classic causes of hypopituitarism”. In 2006-2008 he was the President of the Turkish Association of Endocrinology and Metabolism. He was a member on the board of directors at the European Society of Endocrinology in 2005-2009 and the European Neuroendocrine Association in 2002-2006. He is still a member of the advisory board at the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society.
Also he has been working as a member of the European Society of Endocrinology “Polycystic ovary syndrome” study group since 2013. Keleştimur has received countless national and international rewards for his work among which are the year 2013 Bayındır Medicine Award in health and the TÜBİTAK year 2014 Science Award in science. He has been a guest speaker at nearly 60 international conferences. He was elected to TÜBA principle membership in 2012 and is also a TÜBA council member.
Prof. Dr. H. Fahrettin Keleştimur is still a teaching staff member at the Erciyes University Medical Faculty Endocrinology and Metabolism Diseases Department and has been serving as the Erciyes University rector since 2008.
He has articles in 203 international journals and 89 national journals.