On 28 June 1995, Wörner was elected president by the assembly of what was then called the TH Darmstadt and lead the university from 24 July 1995 to 28 February 2007.

In 2003 he joined the science council's Ranking working group and assumed the chair for structural analysis for superstructures at the university's architecture department as a provisional substitute.

Between 2010 and 2011, Wörner served on the High-Level Group on Aviation and Aeronautics Research launched by European Commissioners Siim Kallas and Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

[3] On 18 December 2014, the European Space Agency announced that Wörner would assume the office of director general for four years on 1 July 2015.

[4] On 19 October 2016 Wörner claimed that the despite the crash at the attempted landing, the Schiaparelli mission was still a success from an engineering standpoint because of the data gathered.