Ronald B. Turner is a Professor of Pediatrics and Lab Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. After receiving his medical degree from Southern Illinois University in Springfield, IL in 1976, Turner pursued two fellowships in pediatric infectious disease, first at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA and then at Columbus Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH.

Turner was Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine before accepting a position as Associate Professor at MUSC in 1987. He became Professor there in 1997.

Recently, Turner's research demonstrated that a compound called BIRR4 reduces the severity of the common cold. The compound, Turner found, prevents the rhinovirus, which causes about 40 percent of colds in adults, from attaching to cells in the nasal lining. With his colleague Dr. Frederick Hayden of the University of Virginia, Turner ran four separate studies on the effectiveness of BIRR4. The studies showed the compound reduced cold symptoms without dulling the immune response to the virus. Turner reported these results at the 1999 meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.