Dates

• Existence: 1881 - 1963

Biography

Professor William Ernest Stephen Turner began his career at the University of Sheffield in 1904 as a Junior Demonstrator in the Department of Chemistry, from which position he was later appointed Lecturer. During WWI he served as Secretary to the Sheffield Committee on Munitions of War, and, following up work which he then did on technical problems relating to war supplies presented by the glass manufacturers of South Yorkshire, commenced a study of the industry. His report of 1915 resulted in the creation of a new Department of Glass Manufacture (soon renamed the Department of Glass Technology), of which Turner was initially Lecturer-in-charge and from 1920 Professor, and he subsequently set up the Society of Glass Technology. Turner thus found himself closely involved in the speciality with which he is particularly associated, and he remained the new Department's Head for 30 years, in which work he maintained a close association with the glass industry. In 1936 the Department relocated to the Elmfield site, where new laboratories were built. Turner retired as Professor in late 1945, but continued to be active in the glass industry. He died in 1963. [Notes based partly on information in 'The Story of a Modern University: a History of the University of Sheffield', by Arthur W. Chapman (1955)]

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