In 2013−2014, Turney led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, a privately funded expedition to the Antarctic in the "Spirit of 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.[3] On the return home Turney's ice-strengthened vessel became trapped by a substantial breakout of sea ice. His book on the expedition's discoveries and the team's experiences trapped by sea ice were published in Iced In: Ten Days Trapped on the Edge of Antarctica.;[4] in Australia and New Zealand, the same book was published under the name of Shackled.[5]
Industry and government leadership
Turney was a Founding Director and now 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.[6][7]
In November 2021, University of Technology Sydney announced that Turney was going their university in January 2022 as their new Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research.[8]
Turney is a Non-Executive Director to Cicada, Australia's leading incubator for startups and scaleups working on deeptech innovations.[9] He is also a Non-Executive Director to the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
Publications
Turney has published more than 240 research papers,[10] 1 textbook and four books,[11][12][13][4] attracting more than 40,000 citations.[6] He has an h-index of 69 on Google Scholar (60 on Scopus). This output put Turney on the 2018 Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher list, representing the 1% most cited scientists in the world. In the past six years Turney has led Category 1 research projects worth more than $6 million (with a career total of $61 million).
Awards
Australian Academy of Science Frederick Stone Award (2014)