Robert Turner, PhD (Physics) 1973, is the recipient of SFU Alumni Association's 2009 Outstanding Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.  Dr. Turner is among a pioneering group of global physicists who helped created today's most widely used method of mapping brain function: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He is currently Director of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Germany).  In his PhD thesis, he studied the use of a novel technique to measure the velocity of sound in liquid metal alloys. These data were of interest in connection with the investigation of the interaction between atoms of the alloy constituents. His PhD research was carried out under the supervision of John Cochran and Daryl Crozier.  According to John, Turner attributes much of his success in the design of MRI apparatus to the fundamental grounding in the applications of Maxwell’s Equations which he received as a graduate student at SFU.

For further information, please check the Alumni Association's website: www.sfu.ca/alumni/our_alumni/outstanding/index.html.