Alber Sabanoglu was born to a Sephardic Jewish family in Izmir, Turkey, and grew up in Istanbul. At eighteen he moved to the US, where he earned an undergraduate degree in history and engineering at Brown University and a graduate degree in mathematics at Tufts University and worked in research in math/artificial intelligence.
In 1992 he came to Madrid, where he teaches mathematics at the IE University. He has also done professional translations and taught English, and has published short stories and articles in Turkish magazines. His translations into Turkish include the books Conversations with Borges and Exemplary Crimes by Max Aub, in collaboration with the playwright Memet Baydur. He worked for many years in an association opposing racism and xenophobia in Spain. He has two children and travels to Turkey several times a year.
