James Turner is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at KAUST.  He has a Master of Engineering degree from City University London and a Ph.D. from Loughborough University.  He is a specialist in the field of spark-ignition combustion, pressure charging systems, alternative fuels, and engine/fuel interactions.

He has over 30 years of experience in the field of internal combustion engines, and has published or co-authored more than 100 papers and book chapters in the field.  He spent over 21 years working at Lotus Engineering, latterly being Chief Engineer for Powertrain Research, in which role he worked on many novel engine, transmission, and fuel concepts.  He is a board member of the IMechE’s Powertrain Systems and Fuels Group, a past-chairman of the SMMT’s Fuels Working Group, is current chairman of the UK’s Universities’ Internal Combustion Engines Group (UnICEG), and a member of the Society of Automotive Engineering’s Horning Award Committee.  In his five years at Bath he has attracted over £2m funding and mentors post- and under-graduate researchers across a wide research portfolio.

In addition to his areas of specialization, his other main area of interest is renewable energy and its application to the transport sector, with particular emphasis on the use of and possibilities afforded by alcohol fuels and hydrogen.  The synergies between alternative engine concepts and such fuels are of great interest to him, having originated in his previous work on the performance development of methanol-burning IndyCar engines.

In addition to working at Lotus Engineering, he has worked at Norton Motorcycles, Cosworth Racing and Jaguar Land Rover.