Science Adviser Profile
Roger Turner
Biography
Roger Turner is the Curator for Instruments and Artifacts at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. His research focuses on the connections between atmospheric science and environmental management during the 20th century. He has published research articles about aviation weather forecasting, concerns about oxygen depletion in the late 1960s, and the history of broadcast meteorology. A current research project examines patterns of women’s participation in the American weather enterprise during 1900–1970.
As a museum curator at the Science History Institute, Turner has worked with chemists to create digital exhibits about mechanochemistry, and the rare earth elements. His writing for Distillations magazine has explored smog control and the use of comics in science education, as well as profiles of a Black meteorologist who chased an eclipse, and a blind biochemist whose experiments with LSD changed our understanding of mental illness.
Prior to working at the Science History Institute, Turner worked with NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory to preserve an oral history project (in cooperation with the American Institute of Physics’ Niels Bohr Library). He also taught American history, environmental studies, and environmental policy at Dickinson College.
Turner attended the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) Summer Policy Colloquium in 2006 and chaired the AMS History committee in 2010 and 2011. He participated in the Weather and Society * Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) workshop in 2008.
Turner earned a Ph.D. in history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010.
Honors/Awards
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2003–2006
- American Meteorological Society, Graduate Fellowship in History of Science, 2008
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Guggenheim Predoctoral Fellowship, 2009–2010
Affiliation
Science History Institute, Philadelphia, Pa.
Location
Carlisle, Pa.