Rate My Professor David Turner

David Turner is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemistry within the Faculty of Science at Monash University, where he has served as Graduate Coordinator since 2017. He earned his MSci in Chemistry in 2001 and PhD in 2004 from King's College London, focusing his doctoral research on anion binding properties and solid-state studies of novel urea-containing ligands and derivatives. Upon completing his PhD, Turner joined Monash as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in 2005, progressing through prestigious fellowships including the ARC Australian Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2006-2008), AINSE Research Fellowship (2009-2012), and ARC Future Fellowship (2012-2016). He was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2016 and subsequently promoted to Associate Professor.

Turner's research specializes in supramolecular and coordination chemistry. His group investigates the synthesis of chiral coordination polymers and metal-organic polyhedra for enantiomeric separations, employs neutron diffraction to study hydrogen-bonding networks, and develops amine-based porous materials for gas capture and separation. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and co-authored two books: 'Core Concepts in Supramolecular Chemistry and Nanochemistry' and 'Coordination Polymers: Design, Analysis and Application'. Key recent publications include 'Discrete metallosupramolecular architectures with amino acids' (Coordination Chemistry Reviews, 2025), 'The Role of Chalcogen Bonding in Organic Dichalcogenides of Biological Interest' (Chemistry - An Asian Journal, 2025), 'Amine-Based MOF for Precious Metal Remediation' (Inorganic Chemistry, 2024), and 'A Study on Auto-Catalysis and Product Inhibition: A Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution Reaction Catalysed within the Cavity of an Octanuclear Coordination Cage' (Chemistry - A European Journal, 2024). Turner's achievements are honored with awards such as the Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2011) and Dean's Award for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (2022). He serves as Secretary of the Society of Crystallographers in Australia and New Zealand (SCANZ) since 2021 and was previously President of the Victorian Branch of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.