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Michael S. Turner
Born	(1949-07-29) July 29, 1949 (age 75) Los Angeles
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Stanford University
Known for	coining the term dark energy
Scientific career
Fields	Physical cosmology
Institutions	University of Chicago
Doctoral students	Marc Kamionkowski Arthur Kosowsky

External videos
Michael Turner - The Dark Side of the Universe, April 8, 2011.

Michael S. Turner (born July 29, 1949) is an American theoretical cosmologist who coined the term dark energy in 1998. He is the Rauner Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Chicago, having previously served as the Bruce V. & Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor, and as the assistant director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences for the US National Science Foundation.

Turner's book The Early Universe, co-written with fellow Chicago cosmologist Edward Kolb, is a standard text on the subject. The 2003 National Academy study, Connecting quarks with the cosmos: eleven science questions for the new century, which Turner chaired, identified opportunities at the intersection of astronomy and physics and has helped shape science investment in the US in this area. In 2022, Turner was appointed as a co-leader, with Maria Spiropulu, of a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine study, leading a committee of 17 physicists world-wide to consider the strategic vision of research in elementary particle physics.

Education

Turner received a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1971, and earned a PhD in physics from Stanford University in 1978.

Career

Turner became an instructor in physics at Stanford University in 1978, and was a fellow at the Enrico Fermi Institute from 1978 to 1980. He was a visiting professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1981 to 1982, and became a scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill, in 1983.

Turner joined the faculty of the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics in 1980, rising to associate professor and then full professor as of 1985. He served as chair of the department from 1997 to 2003, and was named the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1998. He held a joint appointment as one of the founding members of the NASA/Fermilab Theoretical Astrophysics Group at the NASA Fermilab Astrophysics Center (NFAC).

In addition, Turner served as the president of the Aspen Center for Physics from 1989 to 1993, and the assistant director of the National Science Foundation for Mathematical and Physical Sciences from 2003 to 2006. He has served on committees for the Department of Energy, NASA, NSF, the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences. Turner was president of the American Physical Society in 2013.

From 2010 to 2019, Turner served as director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago. He was succeeded as director by Edward Kolb. By 2020 Turner was the Rauner Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Physics at UChicago.

Research

With Edward Kolb, Turner helped establish the interdisciplinary field of particle astrophysics, combining cosmology and elementary particle physics to understand the origin and evolution of the Universe. His research focuses on the earliest moments of creation, and he has made contributions to inflationary cosmology, particle dark matter and structure formation, the theory of big bang nucleosynthesis, and the nature of dark energy. His work in precision cosmology combines theoretical work with measurement to better understand and test theories and models using cosmological data.

Awards

• 1984, Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society
• 1986, Fellow of the American Physical Society, "For outstanding work at the interface of particle physics and cosmology which has led to a new understanding of the early Universe."
• 1996, Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1997, Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society
• 1997, Member, National Academy of Sciences
• 1999, Klopsteg Memorial Award, American Association of Physics Teachers
• 2005, Fellow in Physics, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 2010, Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics of the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics
• 2017, Member, American Philosophical Society
• 2020, Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society

External links

• Research page at University of Chicago Astronomy Department
• Research page at University of Chicago Physics Department
• Video interview Theoretical Cosmology Archived June 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine

References

1. ^ "Turner, Michael Stanley". American Institute of Physics. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
2. Turner, Michael S. (1999). Gibson, Brad K.; Axelrod, Rim S.; Putman, Mary E. (eds.). The Third Stromlo Symposium, the galactic halo : proceedings of a symposium held at Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, Australia, 17-21 August, 1998. Vol. 165. San Francisco, Calif.: Astronomical Society of the Pacific. p. 431. ISBN 1-886733-86-4. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
3. ^ Lerner, Louise (October 3, 2022). "UChicago scientists to help lay out vision for future of particle physics | University of Chicago News". UChicago News. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
4. ^ "Michael S. Turner". The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
5. Egan, Chas A.; Charles H., Lineweaver (2010). "A Larger Estimate of the Entropy of the Universe". The Astrophysical Journal. 710 (2): 1825–1834. arXiv:0909.3983. Bibcode:2010ApJ...710.1825E. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/710/2/1825. S2CID 1274173. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
6. Press, W. H. (August 17, 1990). "The Early Universe. Edward W. Kolb and Michael S. Turner. Addison-Wesley, Redwood City, CA, 1990. xxii, 547 pp., illus. $48.50. Frontiers in Physics, 69". Science. 249 (4970): 808–809. doi:10.1126/science.249.4970.808-a. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17756792.
7. Kolb, Edward W.; Turner, Michael S. (1990). The early universe. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
8. Committee on the Physics of the Universe, Board on Physics and Astronomy, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (March 12, 2003). Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos: Eleven Science Questions for the New Century. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. doi:10.17226/10079. ISBN 0-309-07406-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
9. ^ "Chandra Press Room :: CXC Biographies :: Michael S. Turner". Chandra X-ray Observatory. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
10. ^ Grim, Kathryn (2010). "Fermilab physicists honored for uniting physics and cosmology". Fermilab Today. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
11. ^ Turner, Michael S. (September 26, 2022). "The Road to Precision Cosmology". Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. 72 (1): 1–35. arXiv:2201.04741. Bibcode:2022ARNPS..72....1T. doi:10.1146/annurev-nucl-111119-041046. ISSN 0163-8998. S2CID 245906450.
12. "Edward 'Rocky' Kolb to direct Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics | University of Chicago News". UChicago News. February 26, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
13. "Two $5 million gifts to support Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics | University of Chicago News". UChicago News. September 30, 2020. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
14. ^ "Michael S. Turner". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
15. "Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
16. "APS Fellow Archive". APS. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
17. "American Academy of Arts and Sciences Elects 159 New Fellows". The Chronicle of Higher Education. May 24, 1996. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
18. "Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize". American Physical Society. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
19. "Prize Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
20. "Klopsteg Memorial Lecture". American Association of Physics Teachers. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
21. "AAAS News and Notes". Science. 310 (5748): 634–637. October 28, 2005. doi:10.1126/science.310.5748.634. ISSN 0036-8075. S2CID 220094341.
22. "Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
23. "Michael Turner Senior Strategic Advisor". Kavli Foundation. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
24. "Department News: 2020". The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago. 2020. Retrieved October 18, 2022.

• 1949 births
• Living people
• American cosmologists
• Fellows of the American Physical Society
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics
• University of Chicago faculty
• California Institute of Technology alumni
• Stanford University alumni
• Scientists from California
• 20th-century American astronomers
• 21st-century American astronomers
• 20th-century American physicists
• Members of the American Philosophical Society
• Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Fellows of the American Astronomical Society
• Presidents of the American Physical Society
• Aspen Center for Physics people