Thomas Max Turnbull

Thomas Max Turnbull is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, where he has worked since 2017. He joined Department I in 2020 and transferred to the Department on Knowledge Systems and Collective Life in 2025. His research bridges energy history, Anthropocene studies, and science policy, with a focus on transnational knowledge systems and environmental crisis epistemologies.

• PhD in Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (2017)

His work examines the paradoxes of energy conservation, the role of science in climate futures, and the material practices shaping the Anthropocene. He has collaborated with institutions like Leuphana University, KTH Stockholm, and the University of Oxford on projects such as Mississippi. An Anthropocene River and Fossile Energie, Fragile Zukunft.

Turnbull’s publications, including Energy’s History: Toward a Global Canon (2025), emphasize pluralistic historiography and energy ethics. He has contributed to art-science initiatives like The Ledger of the Sun and The Driving Factor, merging historical research with experimental pedagogy, including the Mississippi River Open School for Kinship and Social Exchange.