Ruth Dixon Turner (1914 – April 30, 2000) was a pioneering U.S.

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifi ...

and

malacologist Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

. She was the world's expert on

Teredinidae The shipworms are marine bivalve molluscs in the family Teredinidae: a group of saltwater clams with long, soft, naked bodies. They are notorious for boring into (and commonly eventually destroying) wood that is immersed in sea water, including ...

or shipworms, a taxonomic family of wood-boring bivalve mollusks which severely damage wooden marine installations. Turner held the Alexander Agassiz Professorship at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, and was a Curator of Malacology in the University's

Museum of Comparative Zoology A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

, where she also served as co-editor of the scientific journal '' Johnsonia''. She graduated from

Bridgewater State College Bridgewater State University is a public university with its main campus in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. It is the largest of nine state universities in Massachusetts. Including its off-campus sites in New Bedford, Attleboro, and Cape Cod, BSU h ...

, earned a master's degree at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

and a Ph.D. at Harvard ( Radcliffe College) where she specialized in shipworm research. Turner became one of Harvard's first tenured women professors in 1973, and was one of the most academically successful female marine researchers, publishing over 200 scientific articles and a book during her long career. She was also the first female scientist to use the deep ocean research submarine

Alvin Alvin may refer to: Places Canada *Alvin, British Columbia United States *Alvin, Colorado *Alvin, Georgia *Alvin, Illinois * Alvin, Michigan *Alvin, Texas * Alvin, Wisconsin, a town *Alvin (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community Other ...

. Much of Turner's work was done in co-operation with

William J. Clench William James Clench (24 October 1897 – 22 February 1984) was an American malacologist, professor at Harvard University and curator of the mollusk collection in the malacology department of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. Early l ...

. Among other things they jointly described about 70 new mollusk species. Organisms named in honor of Turner include two symbiotic bacteria associated with bivalves: '' Teredinibacter turnerae'' (isolated from the

shipworm The shipworms are marine bivalve molluscs in the family Teredinidae: a group of saltwater clams with long, soft, naked bodies. They are notorious for boring into (and commonly eventually destroying) wood that is immersed in sea water, including ...

'' Lyrodus pedicellatus''), and '' Candidatus Ruthia magnifica'' (from the deep-sea bivalve '' Calyptogena magnifica'').

References

External links

Biography of Turner
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Ruth 1914 births 2000 deaths American marine biologists American malacologists American women biologists Harvard University faculty Radcliffe College alumni Cornell University alumni Bridgewater State University alumni 20th-century American zoologists 20th-century American women scientists American women academics