Turner, John Stewart (1908 - 1991)

Turner was Professor of Botany and Plant Physiology, University of Melbourne 1938 - 1973 and quickly assumed leadership in the field of conservation. During World War II he was in charge of a team at the University of Melbourne working on tropic proofing optical instruments using a fungicide. Turner is commemorated by the John S Turner Postgraduate Scholarship, Department of Botany, University of Melbourne.

In 1938 John Stewart Turner was appointed to the vacant Chair of Botany and Plant Physiology, following the death of Ewart in 1937. Fresh from Cambridge, Professor Turner specialised in Plant Physiology and was in advance of his time in the recognition of the needs of the environment. However, his immediate development of the department was under constraints during the war years as every available section was utilised for the war effort. Turner initiated in conjuction with the State Electricity Commission and Soil Conservation Authority a long term experimental project in the Victorian Alps. He established a 'Brown Coal Research Unit' funded jointly by the State Electricity Commission, CSIRO and the University of Melbourne, and responsible for pioneering work in the description of plant remains of the Latrobe Valley Brown Coals. In the late 1950s another unit in collaboration with the CSIRO was established under Turners direction, with the Division of Food Preservation and Transport to research the phsiology of fruit ripening.

During his term in Botany, Turner headed a productive and vigorous teaching and research institution, and Turner in particular took a public role in issues of community concern. He was very active in raising the quality of scientific education in secondary schools and especially concerned to see that biological education was appropriate to the contemporary needs of society. In addition, Turner also led for many years the soundly scientifically based but nevertheless aesthetically sensitive conservation movement, particularly in Victoria, but on occasions also for the Commonwealth government, in places as far afield as Norfolk Island, the Kimberleys and the Northern Territory. He also served as a Royal Commissioner onthe inquiry investigating the University of Tasmania. (School of Botany, The University of Melbourne, 'Background Material Prepared for the Committee of Review March 20-27, 1986, Volume 1: General Information')

Events

9 September 1908	Born
1920s - 1930s	Educated University of Cambridge (MA, PhD)
1934 - 1935	Demonstrator, Botany School, Cambridge
1936 - 1938	Senior Demonstrator, Botany School, Cambridge
1938 - 1973	Professor of Botany and Plant Physiology, University of Melbourne
1944 - 1946	Dean of Science, University of Melbourne
1951 - 1952	President, Royal Society of Victoria
1952	Foundation member, Victorian National Parks Association
1956	Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
1962	President, Wallaby Club
1963 - 1973	Chairman, Board of Management, Melbourne University Press
1965	Foundation member, Australian Conservation Foundation
1967 - 1968	Acting Dean of Science, University of Melbourne
1970	Early member, Victorian Land Conservation Council and Environmental Studies Association
1974 -	Professor Emeritus, University of Melbourne
1974	Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
9 May 1991	Died

Dean

• Office of the Dean of Science, Faculty of Science (1903 - )

  [1944 - 1946]

• Office of the Dean of Science, Faculty of Science (1903 - )

  Acting Dean

  [1967 - 1968]

Professorial Chair

• Chair of Botany and Plant Physiology, Faculty of Science (1906 - 1973)

  [1938 - 1973]

• 'Turner, John Stewart - Ms 114', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, http://www.science.org.au/academy/basser/lists/ms114.txt.
• 'Turner, John Stewart - AAS Biographical Memoir', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 9, no. 3, 1993, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/aasmemoirs/turnerjs.htm.
• 'Turner, John Stewart (1908 - 1991), Biographical Entry', in Bright Sparcs, 2001 edn, 2001, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P000844b.htm.

• Bolton, H.C., 'Optical Instruments in Australia in the 1939-45 War: successes and lost opportunities', Australian Physicist, 1990, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/bolton2.htm.
• Mellor, D.P., 'Optical Munitions', Chapter 12 in Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series 4: Civil, volume 5 'The Role of Science and Industry', Canberra : Australian War Memorial, 1958, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/mellor.htm.