Billie Lee Turner II (born December 22, 1945, Texas City, Texas) is an American
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
and human-environmental scientist, member of the
National Academy of Sciences and other honorary institutions. Prominent among the third generation of the
Berkeley School of Latin Americanist Geography and cultural ecological research, he has been a leader in bridging this work with the Chicago School of natural hazards and risk research. In August 2008, he took a position as the first Gilbert F. White Chair in Environment and Society at
Arizona State University, where he is affiliated with the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and the School of Sustainability. In November 2015, he was named a Regent’s Professor, the highest faculty honor that can be bestowed by
Arizona State University.
For most of his career (1980–2008) he taught at
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...
in
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
. There, he served as Alice C. Higgins and Milton P. Professor of Environment and Society, and Director of the Graduate School of Geography. In 2019, he was appointed Adjunct Faculty of Graduate Studies at
Dalhousie University.
Personal
Raised and educated in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, he is the first son of
Billie Lee Turner, a noted taxonomist and desert botanist. He has a B.A. and M.A. in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin (1968, 1969) and received his
PhD at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
in 1974 for work on Mayan agriculture and landscape change, under the tutelage of William M. Denevan. He then taught at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County for two years, and was based from 1975–1979 in the Department of Geography, University of Oklahoma before moving to Clark University in 1980 and Arizona State University in 2008.
Turner is married with one daughter. His son, Billie Lee Turner III (Aug. 15, 1970-18 May, 2013) died from myotonic dystrophy (MD), as did his first wife, Linda Lee (Van Zandt) Turner in May 2011.
Scholarship
Turner's contributions to knowledge have evolved from an interest in human impacts on the natural world. His early study was on the borders of
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
,
paleoecology
Paleoecology (also spelled palaeoecology) is the study of interactions between organisms and/or interactions between organisms and their environments across geologic timescales. As a discipline, paleoecology interacts with, depends on and informs ...
and geography – the pre-Hispanic
agricultural systems of the
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...
in the
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...
of
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
(Turner, 1983; Harrison & Turner, 1978). This work fueled an interest in agricultural pathways and livelihoods more generally, particularly patterns of agricultural intensification. As an authority of agricultural systems, Turner produced several influential texts on the theory of agrarian change (Turner and Brush, 1989; Turner, 1974; Turner, Hyden & Kates, 1993) and advanced understanding of induced thesis of agricultural intensification.
His position at
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...
assisted in the merger of his cultural ecological interests with the natural hazards-risk work in human ecology, launching him into various leadership roles for international science addressing land change and culminating in the fields of land system science. A major initiative at Clark University involving
Robert Kates, who Turner notes as his “second mentor," generated the ''Earth Transformed by Human Action'' (1990), a major stocktaking of anthropogenic impacts on the planet and its ecosystems. Over the last 20 years Turner has led, or participated in, other research on the science and dynamics of global environmental change (e.g. Steffen et al., 2004).
His interest in specific impacts of populations and societies on land use change and alterations in land cover led to a return to fieldwork in Central America in the 1990s, supported by several large research grants and supporting a large number of PhD students. The specific focus was to understand contemporary patterns of land use, informed by social investigations and GIS and remote sensing (Turner et al., 2004; Gutman et al., 2004). This research helped to reinterpret climate and landscape change involving the demise of Classic Maya civilization (Turner & Sabloff, 2012). He also promoted the emerging field of 'Sustainability Science', an emerging focus at Arizona State University (Rindfuss et al., 2004), lately applying it to the landscape in the Phoenix metropolitan area, including the design of urban land systems on
microclimate
A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...
s. He has served as the Associate Editor of the ''
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sci ...
'' focused on sustainability and human-environmental science since 2009.
He has a lifelong interest in the promotion of geographic and human-environmental science as an academic discipline. He lists, among his hobbies, "entertaining grad students," and he has supervised more than 45 PhDs through to successful careers, and been their great supporters.
Awards and honors
* Member,
National Academy of Sciences
* Fellow,
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
* Fellow,
American Association for the Advancement of Science
* Fellow, Massachusetts Academy of Sciences
*
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the a ...
* Fellow of Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences,
Stanford University
* Fellow,
American Association of Geographers
The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a non-profit scientific and educational society aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields. Its headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. The ...
* Presidential Achievement Award,
American Association of Geographers
The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a non-profit scientific and educational society aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields. Its headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. The ...
* Centenary Medal,
Royal Scottish Geographical Society
The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) is an educational charity based in Perth, Scotland founded in 1884. The purpose of the society is to advance the subject of geography worldwide, inspire people to learn more about the world around ...
* Distinguished Scholarship Award—Conference of Latin Americanists Geographers
* Robert Netting Award (2001), Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group,
Association of American Geographers
The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a non-profit scientific and educational society aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields. Its headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. Th ...
* Outstanding Alumnus Award,
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
Selected bibliography
Books
* Harrison P.D. and B. L. Turner II (eds.) 1978. ''Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture''. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press
The University of New Mexico Press (UNMP) is a university press at the University of New Mexico. It was founded in 1929 and published pamphlets for the university in its early years before expanding into quarterlies and books. Its administrative ...
.
* Turner, B.L. II. 1983. ''Beneath the Forest: Prehistoric Terracing in the Rio Bec Region of the Maya Lowlands''. Boulder:
Westview Press
Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Ki ...
.
* Turner, B.L. II and P.D. Harrison (eds.). 1983.
Pulltrouser Swamp: Ancient Maya Habitat, Agriculture, and Settlement in Northern Belize'. Austin: University of Texas Press.
eprinted_2000,_University_of_Utah_Press:_Salt_Lake_City.html" ;"title="University_of_Utah_Press.html" ;"title="eprinted 2000, University of Utah Press">eprinted 2000, University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City">University_of_Utah_Press.html" ;"title="eprinted 2000, University of Utah Press">eprinted 2000, University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City* Turner, B.L. II and S. B. Brush (eds.) 1987.
Comparative Farming Systems'. New York: Guilford Press.
* Turner, B.L. II, W.C. Clark, R.W. Kates, J.F. Richards, J.T. Mathews, and W.B. Meyer (eds.) 1990. ''The Earth as Transformed by Human Action: Global and Regional Changes in the Biosphere over the Past 300 Years''. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pre ...
).
ational Academy of Science Science Classic* Turner B.L. II, G. Hyden and R.W. Kates (eds.). 1993. ''Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa''. Gainesville:
University Press of Florida
The University Press of Florida (UPF) is the scholarly publishing arm of the State University System of Florida, representing Florida's twelve state universities. It is located in Gainesville near the University of Florida, one of the state's majo ...
.
* Turner, B.L. II and W.B. Mayer. 1994. ''Changes in Land Use and Land Cover: A Global Perspective''. Cambridge University Press.
* Turner, B.L. II, A. G. Sal, F. Bernáldez, and F. di Castri (eds.). 1995. ''Global Land-Use Change: A Perspective from the Columbian Encounter''. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
* Kasperson J.X., R. E. Kasperson and B. L. Turner II (eds.). 1995.
Regions at Risk: Comparisons of Threatened Environments'. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
* Whitmore T.M. and B.L. Turner II. 2001. ''Cultivated Landscapes of Native Middle America on the Eve of Conquest''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* 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:
Springer-Verlag
Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing.
Originally founded in 1842 ...
.
* Turner, B. L. II, J.Geoghegan and D.R. Foster. 2004.
Integrated Land-Change Science and Tropical Deforestation in the Southern Yucatán: Final Frontiers'. Oxford:
Clarendon Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.
* Gutman G., A. Janetos, C. Justice, E. Moran, J. Mustard, R. Rindfuss, D. Skole and B. L. Turner II (eds.). 2004.
Land Change Science: Observing, Monitoring, and Understanding Trajectories of Change on the Earth's Surface'. New York:
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing.
Originally founded in 1842 in ...
.
* Turner, B.L. II. 2022. ''The Anthropocene: 101 Questions and Answers for Understanding the Human Impact on the Global Environment''. Agenda Publishing.
Important articles
* Turner, B. L. II. 1974.
Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Mayan Lowlands Science, 185(4146): 118–124.
* Turner, B. L. II and P.D. Harrison. 1981
Prehistoric Raised-Field Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands Science, 213(4506): 399–405.
* Turner, B.L. II and T.M. Whitmore. 1992
Landscapes of Cultivation in Mesoamerica on the Eve of the Conquest Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 82(3): 402–425.
* Turner, B.L. II and A. M. Shajaat Ali. 1996
Induced intensification: Agricultural change in Bangladesh with implications for Malthus and Boserup Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A., 93(25): 14984–14991.
* Lambin E.F., B. L. Turner II, H. Geist, S. Agbola, A. Angelsen, J. W. Bruce, O. Coomes, R. Dirzo, G. Fischer, C. Folke, P. S. George, K. Homewood, J. Imbernon, R. Leemans, X. Li, E. F. Moran, M. Mortimore, P.S. Ramakrishnan, J. F. Richards, H. Skånes, W. Steffen, G. D. Stone, U. Svedin, T. Veldkamp, C. Vogel, and J. Xu. 2001
The Causes of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change—Moving Beyond the Myths Global Environmental Change: Human and Policy Dimensions 11: 5–13.
* Rindfuss R. R., Stephen J. Walsh, B. L. Turner II, Jefferson Fox, and Vinod Mishra. 2004
Developing a Science of Land Change: Challenges and Methodological Issues Proceedings, National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101(39) 13976–13981.
* Reynolds J.F., D.M. Stafford 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. 2007
Global Desertification: Building a Science for Dryland Development Science 316: 847–851.
* Turner, B. L. II and Jeremy Sabloff. 2012. Classic Period collapse of the Central Maya Lowlands: Insights about human–environment relationships for sustainability''.'' ''
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sci ...
'' 109(35), pp. 13908–13914.
* Zhang, Y., Murray, A., and Turner, B. L., II. 2017. Optimizing green space locations to maximize daytime and nighttime cooling in Phoenix, Arizona. ''
Landscape and Urban Planning'' vol. 165, pp. 162–171
* Tellman, E., Magliocca, N., Turner, B. L., II, and Verburg, P. Understanding the role of illicit transactions in land-change dynamics. ''
Nature Sustainability
''Nature Sustainability'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. It was established in 2018. The editor-in-chief is Monica Contestabile.
Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in:
...
'', Vol. 3, pp. 175–181.
References
Netting Award citationArticle in Nature, April 10 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Billie Lee
American geographers
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Clark University faculty
Arizona State University faculty
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Living people
1945 births
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellows