Ken Turner - Life Member
Ken was born in Innisfail, Queensland in 1949 and completed most of his secondary education at Darwin High School.
He graduated with first class honours in Science from James Cook University of North Queensland in 1971. He was awarded an AINSE post graduate student ship and obtained his PhD from James Cook University of North Queensland in 1975. His thesis title was “A Study of Hydrogen Bonding by Diffraction Techniques” and involved predominantly single crystal structures determined using neutron diffraction techniques at ANSTO.
In September 1977 Ken joined the then BHP Central Research Laboratories as a Research Officer with responsibility for X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) Spectrometry. Subsequently, electron microscopy (SEM/EDS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometry (ICP) was added to his list of responsibilities. In October 1994 he took charge of the Analytical Technology Group.
In September 1995 he was appointed Superintendent Technical Services, BHP Research. In this role he had responsibility for advanced materials characterisation and testing spread over Newcastle, Melbourne and Port Kembla Research Laboratories. As a result of restructuring the three Australian Steelworks (Newcastle, Whyalla and Port Kembla) and BHP Research Newcastle chemical testing laboratories amalgamated to form BHP Laboratory Services. He was appointed Technology Manager for BHP Laboratory Services in 1997 and retained this position until BHP Laboratory Services was broken up and part sold off in July 2001.
After leaving BHP in July 2001 he set up Ken Turner Consulting and provides XRF expertise and training and laboratory auditing to Australian and South East Asian mining and manufacturing laboratories. In his “spare” time Ken and his wife Elaine run a commercial Boer goat and beef cattle farm in Central NSW.
For most of his career Ken has been involved in research and development as well as routine laboratory operations resulting in a publication list around seventy internal reports, conference and journal papers. A significant part of his R&D activities involved the development of instrumental analytical methods in response to the wide variety of sample types presented for analysis. He represented BHP on a number of Standards Australia working groups.
Ken has been a member of the AXAA since 1977 and was AXAA President from 1998 to 2005. He has been a strong supporter of the AXAA National Conferences and was conference chair for AXAA 2002 (Newcastle) and AXAA 2005 (Fremantle) conferences. He was made a Life Member in 2007.
He graduated with first class honours in Science from James Cook University of North Queensland in 1971. He was awarded an AINSE post graduate student ship and obtained his PhD from James Cook University of North Queensland in 1975. His thesis title was “A Study of Hydrogen Bonding by Diffraction Techniques” and involved predominantly single crystal structures determined using neutron diffraction techniques at ANSTO.
In September 1977 Ken joined the then BHP Central Research Laboratories as a Research Officer with responsibility for X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) Spectrometry. Subsequently, electron microscopy (SEM/EDS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometry (ICP) was added to his list of responsibilities. In October 1994 he took charge of the Analytical Technology Group.
In September 1995 he was appointed Superintendent Technical Services, BHP Research. In this role he had responsibility for advanced materials characterisation and testing spread over Newcastle, Melbourne and Port Kembla Research Laboratories. As a result of restructuring the three Australian Steelworks (Newcastle, Whyalla and Port Kembla) and BHP Research Newcastle chemical testing laboratories amalgamated to form BHP Laboratory Services. He was appointed Technology Manager for BHP Laboratory Services in 1997 and retained this position until BHP Laboratory Services was broken up and part sold off in July 2001.
After leaving BHP in July 2001 he set up Ken Turner Consulting and provides XRF expertise and training and laboratory auditing to Australian and South East Asian mining and manufacturing laboratories. In his “spare” time Ken and his wife Elaine run a commercial Boer goat and beef cattle farm in Central NSW.
For most of his career Ken has been involved in research and development as well as routine laboratory operations resulting in a publication list around seventy internal reports, conference and journal papers. A significant part of his R&D activities involved the development of instrumental analytical methods in response to the wide variety of sample types presented for analysis. He represented BHP on a number of Standards Australia working groups.
Ken has been a member of the AXAA since 1977 and was AXAA President from 1998 to 2005. He has been a strong supporter of the AXAA National Conferences and was conference chair for AXAA 2002 (Newcastle) and AXAA 2005 (Fremantle) conferences. He was made a Life Member in 2007.