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Nicholas J. Turro passed away on November 24, 2012, at the age of 74 following a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer.

New York Times obituary
In Memoriam: Nicholas J. Turro (1938-2012)

Please join us for a memorial in honor of the life and work of

Professor Nicholas J. Turro

on Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 1:30pm

at the Department of Chemistry on the Morningside Campus
of Columbia University, 3000 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

Room 309 Havemeyer Hall

There will be a reception to follow at approximately 5:15pm in the

Low Library Rotunda

Please RSVP to the Doodle Poll here.

For more information or directions, please call 212-854-2202, or email mdf2105@columbia.edu.

Donations in Nick's Memory to support research on pancreatic cancer
may be made to The Lustgarten Foundation.

Professor Turro Recognized with the
Inaugural George S. Hammond Award from the IAPS!
The Inter-American Photochemical Society selected Nicholas J. Turro as the recipient of the inaugural George S. Hammond Award. The award is given in recognition of the breadth and depth of Prof. Turro's many crucial contributions to the photochemical sciences and his singular impact on worldwide dissemination of photochemical knowledge through his many collaborations and his pioneering textbooks.
Prof. Turro was recognized at the 22nd I-APS Winter Conference in Sarasota, Florida, January 2-5, 2013. For more information concerning the conference, please visit i-aps.org.
Recent Publications
Turro Group 2011
Our research group deals with the photon as a reagent for initiating photoreactions and as a product of the deactivation of electronically excited molecules. Because photons can selectively excite specific atoms or molecules, they are utilized to study the chemistry and properties of reactive intermediates such as carbenes, radical pairs, singlet oxygen, and biradicals in the confined spaces of zeolites, dendrimers and biological molecules.
The Turro group gratefully acknowledges the support of its research program through the generous support of the National Science Foundation (CHE-07-17518) and the National Institutes of Health (R01-INS060762).

In The News
(Complete Coverage)
Prof. Nicholas J. Turro
Wm. P. Schweitzer Professor of Chemistry

Nicholas J. Turro is the William P. Schweitzer Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University where he has been since 1964. He also holds professorships at the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering. He has been widely recognized by national and international awards as a leader and pioneer in the area of supramolecular chemistry, organic photochemistry, molecular spectroscopy, host-guest chemistry and magnetic effects on photochemical reactions. He has sponsored the PhD thesis of 70 students, has mentored 200 postdocs. Over 100 undergraduates have been trained in research under his supervision. He is the author of two textbooks on Organic Photochemistry, which is considered the “bible” of the field for several generations by organic photochemists since 1965. He has published over 900 research papers and has been selected as one of the most highly cited chemists for the past two decades. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

See his vitae HTML | PDF.


Selected Publications

907. "An Integrated System for DNA Sequencing by Synthesis Using Novel Nucleotide Analogues", Acc. Chem. Res., 43, 551-563 (2010).

900. "The Spin Chemistry and Magnetic Resonance of H2@C60. From the Pauli Principle to Trappping a Long-Lived Nuclear Spin State inside a Buckyball", Acc. Chem. Res., 43, 335-345 (2010).

Highlight. "Polymer Photomodification of Soft and Hard Substrates" and "Education and Outreach Objectives: REU, RET, High School, International Collaboration" (2009)

846. "The Reaction of Singlet Oxygen with Enecarbamates: A Mechanistic Playground for Investigating Chemoselectivity, Stereoselectivity, and Vibratioselectivity of Photooxidants", Acc. Chem. Res., 41, 387-400 (2008).

819. "Fluorescent Hybridization Probes for Sensitive and Selective DNA and RNA Detection", Acc. Chem. Res., 40, 402-409 (2007).