Dr. Sean Turner is a Senior Engineer and Group Leader of the Water Resources Science and Engineering Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He leads research at the intersection of hydrology, energy, and artificial intelligence, developing new ways to predict and manage water resources in managed river basins. His work spans sub-disciplines and scales, ranging from optimization of cascade hydropower generation schedules to simulating long-term energy-water futures across power grids. He has performed research in utility, academic, and research lab settings across the UK, Australia, Singapore, and the United States.
Funded primarily by the Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office (H2O), Turner leads the TVA AI Testbed and the HydroCHiPPs projects, through which he is exploring Agentic AI applications in U.S. hydropower and reservoir operations. He is also applying large-sample machine learning to fill critical data gaps in water quality monitoring, while advancing dynamical coupling of river operations and power system models. Through his career, he has developed, and continues to maintain, a variety of open datasets and tools—such as RectifHydPlus, starfit, and Powersheds—that support public understanding and operational decision-making in the hydropower sector.
While a staff scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Turner authored DOE’s 2022 assessment of Drought Impacts on Western Hydropower and was task-lead on various reservoir management modeling activities funded by DOE’s Office of Science. A recipient of the UK’s industry-based Doctor of Engineering (EngD) (2010 – 2014) and an alumnus of McKinsey & Company (2022 – 2023), Turner has familiarized himself with the challenges faced by utilities, and he strives to provide data, models, and techniques that can improve river basin planning and operations.
