Rate My Professor Mark Turnbull

Mark Turnbull is a Senior Research Scientist in the Chemistry department at Clark University, where he has served on the faculty since the fall of 1986. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of New Hampshire in 1978, an M.S. in Inorganic Chemistry from the same institution in 1984, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Brandeis University in 1987. Following his master's degree, he taught high school chemistry in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Turnbull has held visiting appointments as a lecturer at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1995, and as a visiting professor at the Universitat de Barcelona in Spain during 2001-2002. Renowned for his dedication to teaching, he holds students to rigorous standards in the laboratory and classroom, emphasizing deep understanding over grades and introducing undergraduates to peer-reviewed publication processes.

Turnbull's research centers on the synthesis of new materials in two key areas: molecular magnetism and low-dimensional antiferromagnets. In molecular magnetism, his interdisciplinary work with organic and inorganic chemists, theoreticians, and condensed matter physicists—including collaborations with Professor Christopher Landee at Clark and international teams in Spain, Germany, Great Britain, and New Zealand—leverages principles of structure, bonding, and geometry to control bulk magnetic properties at the molecular level. His low-dimensional antiferromagnets research targets complexes modeling copper oxide-based high-temperature superconductors, exploring magnetic super-exchange mechanisms in structures such as ladders, honeycombs, and rectangles. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications, edited a book, and serves as co-editor of the Journal of Coordination Chemistry. Select recent works include “CuBr2 complexes with 3,5-disubstituted pyridine ligands” (Acta Cryst. E, 2025, with C. P. Landee and D. A. Dickie), “Copper(II) complexes of hindered diazines: methylquinoxalines” (J. Coord. Chem., 2025, with C. P. Landee, D. A. Dickie, B. Twamley, and J. L. Wikaira), “Copper(II)-Involving Reactions of α-Pyridoin Oxime: A Dodecanuclear Cluster and a 2D Coordination Polymer” (Magnetochemistry, 2025, with K. H. Baka et al.), and “The Synthesis and Structure of Adamantoid Copper (II) Clusters” (J. Coord. Chem., 2024, with B. A. Mukda et al.). His contributions to chemistry education earned him the John A. Timm Award from the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers in 2016, and he received the PCI Synthesis Summer Research Fellowship in 2021.