Helen Alma Newton Turner

{{Infobox scientist

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Helen A. Newton Turner

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|size=100%|sep=,|country=AUS-cats|AO|OBE}}

| image = Helen Alma Newton Turner 1973.jpg

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| caption = Newton Turner in 1973

| birth_date = {{Birth date text|15 May 1908}}

| birth_place = Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

| death_date = {{death date and age|1995|11|26|1908|5|15|df=y}}

| death_place = Chatswood, Sydney

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| fields = Genetics, statistics

| workplaces = Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

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| alma_mater = University of Sydney

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| known_for = Research into sheep genetics

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| awards = Farrer Memorial Medal

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Helen Alma Newton Turner {{post-nominals|country=AUS-cats|AO|OBE}} (15 May 1908 – 26 November 1995) was an Australian geneticist and statistician. She was a leading authority on sheep genetics and worked at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) for 40 years.

Biography

Helen Alma Newton Turner was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on 15 May 1908. She received her BArch in 1930, graduating with honors from the University of Sydney. She worked briefly in an architect's office before taking a position as Ian Clunies Ross' secretary at the McMaster Animal Health Laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (now the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) in 1931. She developed an interest in statistics and Ross arranged for her to train in the United Kingdom with statisticians Frank Yates and Ronald Fisher.{{cite news|title=Dr Helen Newton Turner AO OBE|url=http://www.aaabg.org/aaabghome/HNTbiography.php|work=AAABG Newsletter|date=December 1995}} She returned to CSIRO in 1939 as a consulting statistician to the agency's Division of Animal Health and Production. Newton Turner formed the University Women's Land Army with marine biologist Isobel Bennett in 1940.{{cite book|editor1-last=Commire|editor1-first=Anne|title=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia|date=2002|publisher=Yorkin Publications|location=Waterford, Connecticut|isbn=0-7876-4074-3|chapter-url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588817633.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220183419/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588817633.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2016-02-20|chapter=Newton Turner, Helen (1908–1995)|chapter-url-access=subscription }} She was a statistician for the Department of Home Security in Canberra in 1942 and for the Department of Manpower in Sydney from 1943 to 1944. She worked as a statistician until about 1945 and in 1946 became a technical officer at the Division of Animal Health and Production.

In 1956, Newton Turner was made senior principal research scientist of CSIRO's Division of Animal Genetics and led sheep breeding research. She received her DSc from the University of Sydney in 1970 and continued at the Division of Animal Genetics in 1976.{{cite web|last1=McCarthy|first1=G. J.|title=Turner, Helen Alma Newton (1908 - 1995)|url=http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P001225b.htm|publisher=Encyclopedia of Australian Science|access-date=16 November 2015}} Newton Turner introduced objective, measurement-based approaches to sheep breeding and utilised quantitative genetics to improve wool quality and output from Merino sheep. From the late 1960s until the late 1980s, she travelled, assessing sheep development programs around the world.{{cite news|last1=Allen|first1=Nessy|title=Obituary: Helen Newton Turner|url=http://sydney.edu.au/senate/documents/Students/Turner_obituary.pdf|work=The Australian|date=November 1995}}

The Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics established the Helen Newton Turner Medal in 1993.{{cite web|title=Helen Alma Newton Turner [1908-1995] |url=http://www.csiropedia.csiro.au/display/CSIROpedia/Newton+Turner,+Helen+Alma |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305175812/http://www.csiropedia.csiro.au/display/CSIROpedia/Newton+Turner%2C+Helen+Alma |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 March 2012 |publisher=CSIROpedia |access-date=16 November 2015 }}{{cite book|title=Proceedings of the Sixteenth Conference: Application of New Genetic Technologies to Animal Breeding, Noosa Lakes, Queensland Australia, 25th-28th September 2005|date=2005|publisher=CSIRO Publishing|location=Collingwood|isbn=0-643-09234-X|page=xix|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=liFYhj3TMnYC&q=helen%20newton%20turner&pg=PR19}} She died on 26 November 1995 in Sydney.{{Cite encyclopedia |first1=Doug |last1=McCann |title=Turner, Helen Alma (1908–1995) |encyclopedia=Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/turner-helen-alma-29660/text36636 |date=2020 |access-date=22 January 2023}} This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 19, (ANU Press), 2021.

Awards

File:FAO CERES2 Turner Silver Obverse.jpg

File:FAO CERES2 Turner Silver Reverse.jpg

1953 – Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
1974 – Farrer Memorial Medal
1977 – Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
1980 – FAO Ceres Medal
1985 – Rotary Medal for Vocational Excellence
1987 – Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)

Helen Alma Newton Turner

Biography

Awards

References

Further reading