He received his BS degree in mechanical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1999, and his SM and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 and 2004, respectively. Turner joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005. His primary research interests are the manufacturing and mechanics and of micro and nanoscale systems. Turner's research spans multiple topics, including wafer bonding, tip-based nanomanufacturing, and transfer and integration of semiconductor nanomembranes. He has published nearly 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and more than 50 papers in conference proceedings.