JOESEPH TURBEVILLE
Joseph Turbeville - NC - Retired Physicist from the University of South Florida and author of "A Glimmer of Light From the Eye of a Giant". He was a Federal Sea Grant recipient, project Director on an oil spill recovery project, and served with SINTEF at the University of Trondheim in Norway. His most recent environmental publication was in an IUPAC Journal (on oil spill issues) and may be found on-line at http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/special/0199/pdfs/gaaseidnes.pdf
Serving as a merchant seaman in his late teens during the height of World War II, and later
sailing as a deck officer in the early post-war era, provided the author with a keen perception
and a first understanding of the mechanics of the universe. His early seagoing training in
navigation had raised in him the desire to gain a greater knowledge of the world he lived in.
During the 60's Turbeville obtained two degrees in Physics and began an academic career of
management, teaching, and research at the University of South Florida. In the 70's, he
received funding from the Federal Seagrant Program for the development of an oil spill
recovery concept for which patents were later issued. This work also provided the
opportunity to spend a year as an invited research associate with SINTEF at the University of
Trondheim in Norway.
By the mid 80's Turbeville had moved from Florida to the North Carolina mountains in the
first step toward early retirement. This moved him out of the "big city" and into a more
peaceful environment, one that would be conducive to other kinds of creative activity.
From the fall of 89 through the spring of 91 Turbeville taught at the University of Western
North Carolina on a part-time basis as he began to settle into a slower pace of life.
