Professor Chris Turney
PhD in Geography
1994 to 1998 ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, Egham, U.K.
Ph.D. in 'Stable isotope stratigraphy and tephrochronology of the last glacial-interglacial transition (14-9 ka 14C BP) in the British Isles.鈥 Supervisors Prof. J.J. Lowe and Dr D.D. Harkness (NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride).
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Environmental Science
1991 to 1994 UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA, Norwich, U.K.
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Environmental Science.听 Grade 2:1.
Chris is a recently completed Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Professor of Climate Change and Earth Science at the University of New South Wales. Chris is an experienced science and industry leader who brings together interdisciplinary teams to tackle global environmental challenges of societal importance in the Anthropocene. Chris champions the value of science in decision-making, and work with governments, industry, the Third Sector and communities to inform on national and global policy and technology deployment.听He is Director of 听and Director of the听.听He is also UNSW Node Director of the听听and is a member of the International radiocarbon Calibration group (IntCal). To help do something positive about climate change, he was a Founding Director and Inventor of New Zealand-based clean tech company听听which has developed technology to fix carbon from the atmosphere and make a host of green bi-products including sustainably-produced bioengineered graphite for Li-ion batteries.听Chris co-ordinates and teaches on .
Chris听has over 32,000 citations listed in Google Scholar with an h-index of 63听(56 reported in Scopus) and a Scopus Field-Weighted Citation Impact of 5.9 (2016-2021)听鈥 that is, outputs have been cited over 5.9 times the world average for similar publications.听These statistics have been generated from over 220 scientific papers (11 papers in Nature and Science, 1 in Science Advances, 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 3 in Nature Geoscience, 5 in Nature Communications), 1 textbook and 5 books.听Described by the UK Saturday Times as the 鈥new David Livingstone鈥, Chris鈥 team communicate their findings in the field as , reporting discoveries when they happen, where they happen. Chris has received numerous awards, including the Australian Academy of Sciences Frederick Stone Award (2014), the Geological Society of London鈥檚 Bigsby Medal (2009), the Philip Levehulme Prize (2008), and the inaugural Sir Nicholas Shackleton Medal (2007) from the听International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA).
Chris is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Meteorological Society, the Geological Society of London, the Royal Geographical Society and the Advance HE.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Recent Grant Funding
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2020 Turney, C.S.M., Thomas, Z., Becerra-Valdivia, L., Fogwill, C., Golledge, N., Weber, M., Davies, S. Back to the Future: Interglacial Warming and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. ARC Discovery Project. A$590,000.
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2020 Rohling, E., Bostock, H., George, S., Foden, G., Gallagher, S., Grice, K., McGregor, H., Nebel, O., O鈥橪eary, M., Sloss, C., Turney, C., Webster, J. and Whittaker, J. (alphabetical) Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. ARC Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities. A$3 million.
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2018 Turney, C.S.M. Chronos 14Carbon-Cycle Facility: A new carbon dating facility for UNSW. University of New South Wales. A$7.9 million
- 2017 Roberts, R., Brook, B., Johnson, C., O鈥機onnor, S., Lawson, J., Bird, M., Cooper, A.,听Turney, C.S.M., David, B. and others (alphabetical). ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage. A$34 million.
- 2017听Turney, C.S.M.,听Cooper, A., Hughen, K., Muscheler, R. and Hogg, A. Testing the mechanisms and impacts of abrupt and extreme climate change. ARC Discovery Project. A$1 million.
- 2014听Frederick White Prize, The Australian Academy of Science
- 2011 Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship
- 2009听Bigsby Medal, The Geological Society of London
- 2008听Philip Leverhulme Prize, The Leverhulme Trust
- 2007听Sir Nicholas Shackleton Medal for Most Outstanding Quaternary听Scientist, International Union for Quaternary Research (first recipient)
- 2004听J.G. Russell Award, Australian Academy of Science
- 2002/2003听Teaching Award, Queen鈥檚 University, Belfast, UK (first in the Science Faculty)
I am an internationally recognized Earth scientist and research leader at the University of New South Wales. My research cuts across traditional discipline divides, and is focussed on understanding the Earth system and using this knowledge to mitigate the impacts of future projected environmental change. I firmly believe it is only through bringing together different disciplines can we successfully meet the challenges of the future. I am privileged to lead an amazing group of transdisciplinary researchers and teachers as Director of the Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre and Director of the UNSW Chronos 14Carbon-Cycle Facility, working to find global environmental solutions in this all important next decade. I champion the value of science in decision-making, and work with governments, industry, the Third Sector and communities to help achieve this aim.
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My Research Supervision
2020-present 'Climate change impacts on water resources for Indian Ocean island Communities.' University of New South Wales.
2019-present听 鈥楢 Southern Ocean Solution: reconstructing past Weddell Sea ocean productivity using a novel biomarker proxy.鈥 University of Keele, UK.
2018-present 鈥業mproving our understanding of climate change-groundwater interactions in the Pacific.鈥 University of New South Wales.
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My Teaching
I co-ordinate and teach听on .