He was the recipient of the 2011 Arthur C. Cope Award in Organic Chemistry, given annually "to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of organic chemistry, the significance of which has become apparent within the five years preceding the year in which the award will be considered.
Following a postdoctoral year at Harvard with P. D. Bartlett, he joined the faculty at Columbia University where he was the Wm.
[7] Although he worked in many areas of chemistry, he was most well known for his work in photochemistry and spectroscopy, which he applied to studies involving small molecules in solution, interfaces, thin films, polymers, biological systems including DNA and carbohydrates, nanomaterials, supramolecular and "super-duper" molecular systems.
His expertise in photochemistry, spectroscopy and organic chemistry lead to a large network of international collaborators, including Fortune 500 companies such as Procter and Gamble.
Turro has been selected as one of the most highly cited chemists for the past two decades, and has published over 900 research papers.