In 2013−2014, Turney led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, a privately-funded expedition to the Antarctic in the "Spirit of [Douglas] Mawson", to investigate environmental changes across the region and communicate the value of scientific research. Scientific findings include the recognition of a 1965 Carbon-14 peak preserved in "the Loneliest Tree in the World" and shrubs growing on Campbell Island, New Zealand, that offer a possible marker for the proposed Anthropocene Epoch in the geological timescale.[2] On the return home Turney's ice-strengthened vessel became trapped by a substantial breakout of sea ice. After two other vessels were unable to reach the stricken ship, the expedition members were eventually airlifted by helicopter to the Chinese polar research vessel Xue Long, while the Russian crew members had to stay on board the ship.[3] Environmental writer Andrew Revkin criticised the scientists on board Akademik Shokalskiy;[4] however, Professor Michael Robinson of University of Hartford noted that the expedition aimed to use Mawson's observations as a baseline for their own scientific findings "that [would] illuminate Antarctica's future, not its past. As such, the voyage [would] prove to be well worth the time and effort".[5] Turney's book on the expedition's discoveries and the team's experiences trapped by sea ice was published under two titles: Iced In: Ten Days Trapped on the Edge of Antarctica[6] in Australia and New Zealand, and also as Shackled, by Penguin.[7]
Turney was a professor at the University of New South Wales in 2013.[8] He was later professor of climate change and earth science and director of the Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre and the Chronos 14Carbon-Cycle Facility at the University of New South Wales.[1]
On 23 April 2025, Turney was announced as deputy principal research and impact at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the role, he leads the development and growth of Heriot-Watt's Global Research Institutes and continue the advancement of the Research Futures Hub.[10]
Other activities and roles
Turney was a founding director and later scientific advisor to New Zealand cleantech company CarbonScape, which has developed patented technology to produce and engineer carbon-negative graphite from sustainably-sourced biomass to be used in lithium-ion batteries.[11]
Turney has published hundreds of research papers,[13] in addition to at least one textbook and four books,[14][15][6] attracting more than 40,000 citations as of March 2023[update].[11]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
