Mehmet Haberal

Mehmet Haberal (born 1944), is the founder of Başkent University in Ankara, Turkey, best known for becoming the first transplant surgeon in Turkey after leading the team that performed Turkey's first living-related kidney transplant in 1975, after he returned from surgical training under the mentorship of American surgeon Thomas Starzl, with whom he also performed some of the longest surviving early liver transplantations.

Just over a year after returning from the States, he established a network of centres for dialysis for people with end-stage kidney failure and then, in 1978, led the team that performed Turkey's first kidney transplantation using a kidney from a deceased person. After successfully lobbying for changed laws in Turkey, his team performed the first local deceased-donor kidney transplantation at Hacettepe University in 1979. His role in the passing of further legislation led to Turkey's first deceased donor liver transplantation in 1988 and the first living donor liver transplantation in 1990.