LSU Boyd Professor R. Eugene Turner Celebrates Retirement

BATON ROUGE - LSU Boyd Professor R. Eugene Turner is retiring after 48 years of illustrious service to the university. Turner served as faculty in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences.

“Dr. Turner leaves an indelible mark on CC&E, LSU, and the scientific community. His exemplary work in estuarine and coastal systems has had a lasting impact on the field, and his dedication to community involvement is inspiring,” said Clint Willson, Interim Dean of CC&E. “Whether he is engaging in interdisciplinary conversations on LSU’s campus or working with coastal residents on wetland restoration, Dr. Turner has shown us that good science is not only about discovery but also service. Congratulations on your retirement, Gene!” 

Turner is a highly productive and well recognized researcher with interests in biological oceanography, estuarine ecology, wetlands, conservation and environmental management, among other topics. He has 35,000 citations with publications on topics ranging from the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico to coastal wetlands loss to the water quality in the watershed of the Mississippi River. 

In 2013, he was named an LSU Boyd Professor, the highest academic honor given by the university.  Fellow Boyd Professor Suzanne Marchand, who also serves with Turner at LSU’s Center for Collaborative Knowledge, said he embodies the values the distinction should hold. 

“What I love most about Gene is that he really gets what it is to be a ‘university’ professor, which is what the Boyd professorship means: that is, to see across all disciplines and to try to understand and appreciate the work of his colleagues in fields far beyond his own,” said Marchand, who is faculty in the Department of History. “He is…indispensable to LSU, as a model citizen and advocate of the university as a whole, as a place for grass-roots interdisciplinary collaborations and conversations that enrich us all.”

“ He is…indispensable to LSU, as a model citizen and advocate of the university as a whole, as a place for grass-roots interdisciplinary collaborations and conversations that enrich us all. ”

Turner’s dedication had an equal impact on his students. Aaron Bass studied under him twice, first receiving a Masters in 1993 and then a PhD in 2004. “Dr. Turner gave me an opportunity to pursue a career that I did not even know existed in the early 1990s,” Bass, who currently works as an environmental consultant, said. “He has always been passionate about his research and driven to making a difference. I apply things that I learned as a graduate student under his guidance on a daily basis.”

The Coastal Estuarine Research Federation recognized Turner’s influence on the field by awarding him the Odum Lifetime Achievement Award at their meeting last November. The award holds a special significance for Turner, he said at the time, because he knew the Odum family for which the award was named. In 2016, he was named a Fellow by the Society of Wetland Scientists, and he is a founding member of the Wetland Working Group of the International Society for Ecologists.

Turner trained as a systems ecologist at the University of Georgia, where he received his PhD in 1974. An interest in complex systems drew his attention to the coastal wetlands of Louisiana, and he came to LSU.