Claudia Turro

Claudia Turro is an American inorganic chemist who is the Dow Professor of Chemistry at the The Ohio State University (OSU). Since July 2019 she has been the Chair of the OSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. She was elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2010 and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023) and the National Academy of Sciences (2024).

Education
Claudia Turro earned her B.S. with Honors from Michigan State University in 1987. She completed her Ph.D. in 1992 at the same institution, where she collaborated with Daniel G. Nocera and George E. Leroi. Following this, she was awarded a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowship, which allowed her to conduct postdoctoral research at Columbia University with Nicholas J. Turro (no relation) from 1992 to 1995.

Research and career
Turro joined the faculty of The Ohio State University in 1996. She and her group study light-initiated reactions of metal complexes, with applications in photochemotherapy (PCT) and treatment of diseases, luminescent sensors, and solar energy conversion. They investigate the excited states of mononuclear and dinuclear transition metal complexes to enhance their reactivity. Their research focuses on controlling the dynamics of excited states, including photophysical properties and reactivity, such as energy transfer, charge separation, recombination, and photochemical reactions. This understanding is crucial for applications in solar energy, PCT, and sensing.

Awards and honors

 * 1998 Early CAREER Award by the National Science Foundation
 * 1999 Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award
 * 2010 Elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society
 * 2012 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
 * 2014 Award in Photochemistry from the Inter-American Photochemical Society
 * 2016 Recipient of Edward W. Morley Medal from the Cleveland section of the ACS
 * 2023 Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
 * 2024 Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences