UPIKE welcomes new chem professor
0Written By Jordan Mullins
Dr. Andrew Turner, assistant professor of chemistry, is still settling in to his office and the area but has already found his place on campus. Turner spent the last 7 years working on his Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii although he grew up in Indianapolis, Ind. Turner is also a graduate of DePauw University (undergraduate) and Indiana University (master’s).
Turner said he is enjoying the semester so far. “It has just been busy. I’m still settling into my apartment and my office,” he said.
When asked about his hobbies, he said he is a nerd. “If I have free time I like to stay at my place on my computer and play video games,” Turner said. “I interact with so many people throughout the day, and it’s nice to come home and have some quiet time.”
Turner’s Ph.D. study was interesting. In layman’s terms, he described the process of his study. Turner focused on astrochemistry, which is how chemistry takes place in space. To recreate the conditions in space, he said, “We made it very cold, very low pressure, and gave the experiment the same energy sources as one would find in space.”
Turner mentioned many interesting discoveries he made, such as a meteorite containing amino acids.
“We worked with the observation guys a lot. We watched a meteorite enter Earth’s atmosphere and land in a frozen lake in Canada. We went there, collected the meteorite, and brought it back to the lab for testing and found half of the amino acids that make up our own proteins,” said Turner. “Everything is made of space dust.”