Chris Turney is an award-winning British and Australian climate scientist, entrepreneur and optimist. As Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research at the University of Technology Sydney, he is working with a diverse and talented team of transdisciplinary researchers and professional staff tackling the world’s most pressing challenges. Chris champions the value of research findings in decision-making and passionate about universities supporting the decarbonization of the global economy to reach a net-zero economy. To help reach this goal, he was a Founding Director, Inventor and now Scientific Advisor to the New Zealand-based clean tech company CarbonScape (www.carbonscape.com) which has developed technology to covert plant material into locally-produced, sustainable, bioengineered graphite for lithium-ion batteries. He has published over 250 research papers and 4 books. Likened to Malcolm Gladwell (Publishers Weekly) and described as the ‘new David Livingstone’ (The Saturday Times), Chris is driven by a passion to share research findings and their implications with the public. Communicating scientific thinking is at the core of what Chris does. He regularly writes articles and does interviews about research and exploration (including to The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN and The BBC). His latest project is as host and co-writer for the podcast series ‘Unf*cking the Future’ with Imagine Entertainment. Speaking to entrepreneurs, inventors, and activists around the world, the series explores the climate reality our planet faces today and the solutions that can be implemented to save it. Guests include billionaire and entrepreneur Tom Steyer, Bill Nye (Netflix’s “the Science Guy”), activist and model Sabrina Elba, and Hollywood director Adam McKay.
