David G. Turner (born 1945) is a Canadian astronomer and professor (emeritus) in the department of astronomy and physics at Saint Mary's University.

Early life and education

Turner was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1945. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Waterloo, followed by a Master of Science and PhD from the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...

Career

Turner was the editor of the '' Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada'' from 1995 to 2000, and continues as review editor. His research interests include

stellar evolution Stellar evolution is the process by which a star changes over the course of time. Depending on the mass of the star, its lifetime can range from a few million years for the most massive to trillions of years for the least massive, which is cons ...

, Cepheid variables, and

open cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, and ...

s. He is one of the foremost authorities on the North Star,

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...

. Asteroid 27810 Daveturner (= 1993 OC2) was named in his honor by

Carolyn S. Shoemaker Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker (June 24, 1929 – August 13, 2021) was an American astronomer and a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. She discovered 32 comets (then a record for the most by an individual) and more than 500 astero ...

and

David H. Levy David Howard Levy (born May 22, 1948) is a Canadian amateur astronomer, science writer and discoverer of comets and minor planets, who co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 in 1993, which collided with the planet Jupiter in 1994. Biography L ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, David G. 20th-century Canadian astronomers Living people 1945 births Academic staff of the Saint Mary's University (Halifax) University of Waterloo alumni University of Western Ontario alumni