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B. L. Turner II

photo of B. L. Turner II

Gilbert F. White Professor of Environment and Society

COOR 5628
(480) 965-1535

Additional
Affiliation(s):

Affiliate Faculty, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
Research Professor, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University

Education:

1974 - Ph.D. (Geography) University of Wisconsin-Madison
1969 - M.A. (Geography) University of Texas at Austin
1968 - B.S. (Geography) University of Texas at Austin

Research Interests:

Human-environment relationships, land change science, sustainability, tropical forests, ancient Maya

Research Activities:

Professor Turner is currently engaged in land change science focused especially on deforestation and sustainability in the southern Yucatán.

Awards and Honors:

2008 - Fellow, Massachusetts Academy of Science (inaugural class)
2002 - Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2001 - National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences
2001 - Robert Mc. Netting Award (for distinguished scholarship linking geography and anthropology), Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group, AAG
1998 - American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1996 - Centenary Medal (for outstanding contributions to research), Royal Scottish Geographical Society
1995 - Distinguished Research Honors, Association of American Geographers
1995 - National Academy of Sciences
1994 - Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA
1987 - Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award, Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers
1981 - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship

Selected Publications:

Books

Turner, B. L. II, J. Geoghegan, and D. R. Foster, eds. 2004. Integrated Land-Change Science and Tropical Deforestation in the Southern Yucatán: Final Frontiers. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press.

Gutman, G., A. Janetos, C. Justice, E. Moran, J. Mustard, R. Rindfuss, D. Skole and B. L. Turner II. 2004. Land Change Science: Observing, Monitoring, and Understanding Trajectories of Change on the Earth's Surface. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Steffen, W., A. Sanderson, P. Tyson, J. Jäger, P. Matson, B. Moore III, F. Oldfield, K. Richardson, H-J Schellnhuber, B. L. Turner, II, and R. Wasson. 2004. Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet under Pressure. IGBP Global Change Series. Berlin Heidelburg New York: Springer-Verlag.

Journal Articles

Turner, B. L. II and P. Robbins. 2008. Land Change Science and Political Ecology: Similarities, Differences, and Implications for Sustainability Science. Annual Reviews in Environment and Resources, 33: 6.1-6.22.

Turner, B. L. II, E. Lambin, and A. Reenberg. 2007. The Emergence of Land Change Science for Global Environmental Change and Sustainability. Proceedings, National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(52): 20666-20671.

Reynolds, J. F., D. M. S. Smith, E. F. Lambin, B. L. Turner II, M. Mortimore, S. P. Batterbury, T. E. Downing, H. Dowlatabadi, R. J. Fernandez, J. E. Herrick, E. Huber-Sannvald, R. Leemans, T. Lynam, F. Mestre, M. Ayarza, and B. Walker, B. 2007. Global Desertification: Building a Science for Dryland Development. Science, 316:847-851.

Chowdhury, R. R. and B. L. Turner II. 2006. Reconciling Agency and Structure in Empirical Analysis: Smallholder Land Use in Southern Yucatán, Mexico. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 96(2): 302-322.

Courses Taught:

Society and Environment
History of Contemporary Geography
Human Ecologies

Outreach and Service:

Professor Turner has served on a large number of panels, committees and boards of the Association of American Geographers, National Research Council-National Academy of Sciences, Social Science Research Council, and International Council of Science.

He helped to form the Global Land Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and International Human Dimensions Programme and currently serves on its Scientific Steering Committee as well as a panel of America's Climate Choices, a congressionally mandated study of the National Academy of Sciences directed to outreach on global environmental change.