Professor Chris Turney, Department of Geography

Professor Chris Turney.

Exeter scientist up for major book prize

University of Exeter geologist Professor Chris Turney has made it onto the longlist of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books for Ice, Mud and Blood: Lessons from Climate Past.

Published by MacMillan, Ice, Mud and Blood takes the reader on a journey from the Alps to the Andes through apocalyptic flooding, devastating storms and catastrophic sea level rise.

By showing how these events created the world we live in, the book presents a stark picture of what the future could hold. Professor Chris Turney published Ice Mud and Blood hot off the heels of his acclaimed book Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened.

The Royal Society Prize for Science Books is the world's most prestigious award for science writing. The judges have selected a longlist of thirteen books, all by authors who are new to the prize.

Professor Chris Turney of the University of Exeter’s School of Geography, Archaeology and Earth Resources, said: "I’m blown away to be on the longlist. The Royal Society prize is the most prestigious one in the world for popular science. I’m going to keep everything crossed I make the shortlist!"

The shortlist will be announced on 25 June 2009. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Society on 15 September 2009 and awarded £10,000. The authors of each shortlisted book will receive £1000.

The judges are: Sir Tim Hunt FRS, Cancer Research UK and Nobel laureate (Chair); Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, space scientist at Astrium Ltd, STFC Fellow of University College London and Founder and MD of Science Innovation Ltd; Dr Phillip Ball, author; Deborah Cohen, Editor, BBC Radio Science Unit; Danny Wallace, author, comedian and presenter.

Professor Sir Tim Hunt FRS, Chair of the judges said: "We were surprised and delighted at the quality of books and the diversity of subjects, and greatly enjoyed reading and discussing them. In the end we found it impossible to whittle it down to the traditional long-list of twelve, going instead for a baker's dozen fascinating and diverse potential winners. Choosing a shortlist, let alone awarding the prize, is a daunting prospect."

Professor Chris Turney joined the University of Exeter in 2007 from the University of Wollongong, Australia. He researches and teaches geology and is particularly interested in what the past can tell us about the future. Chris carried out the radiocarbon dating on the ‘Hobbit’ fossil of Flores, Indonesia that hit the world’s headlines in 2004. He has published numerous scientific papers and magazine articles and given frequent media interviews. In 2007 he was awarded the Sir Nicholas Shackleton Medal for outstanding young Quaternary Scientist for his pioneering research into past climate change and dating the past. In 2008 he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize to fund his research on historic climate change for three years.

Date: 28 May 2009