Richard Turton

Richard was born in London, England, in 1955 to his parents Donald W. and Joyce Turton. He grew up in the southeast London borough of Eltham and attended St. Olave’s Grammar School in Southwark, London. He graduated from Nottingham University in England in 1977 with a BSc in Chemical Engineering. While he was at Nottingham, he was a member of and captained the university golf team and was a student member of the Faculty Senate.

After graduating with his BSc, he attended Oregon State University and graduated with an MS ChE degree in 1979. He then worked as a junior process engineer for Pullman-Kellogg Co. in England and as a process engineer for Fluor E&C Corp. in Irvine, California. In 1983, he returned to OSU and became a PhD student under the mentorship of Prof. Octave Levenspiel. After receiving his PhD, he joined the faculty at West Virginia University in the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1986. He spent the remainder of his professional career at WVU serving as the Department Chair from 2018-2021, as Faculty Senate Chair from 2015-2016, as a Member of the Board of Governors from 2015-2017, and as the WVU Bolton Professor from 2012 to his retirement in June 2021. He is the lead author for two textbooks and a co-author of nearly 100 peer-reviewed research papers.

He and his wife Becky reside in Morgantown, West Virginia and look forward to traveling, watching movies, and pursuing their many hobbies.