Honorary doctorate for Jarugu Narasimha Moorthy

Professor Jarugu Narasimha Moorthy has played a key role in establishing institutional cooperation between the University of Würzburg and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER TVM). He has also made significant contributions to supramolecular materials chemistry, particularly to the development of porous organic solids and photochromic and emissive organic materials.

In recognition of these achievements, the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Würzburg has awarded the Indian professor an honorary doctorate. The ceremony took place on 29 September 2026 in the Chemistry Central Building. J.N. Moorthy is a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and former Director of IISER TVM.

The laudatory speeches were given by Professor Werner M. Nau from the School of Science at Constructor University Bremen, a long-standing colleague of the honouree, and Professor Frank Würthner from JMU, Head of the Center for Nanosystems Chemistry and the Chair of Organic Chemistry II. Würthner is co-speaker of the International Research Training Group “Photoluminescence in Supramolecular Matrices”, which the University of Würzburg established jointly with IISER TVM.

Strong commitment to cooperation with Würzburg

As Director from 2019 to 2026, J.N. Moorthy made a major contribution to the development of IISER TVM into one of India’s leading research and educational institutions.

Soon after his appointment as Director, he initiated the first cooperation with Würzburg’s Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy in 2021: a dual doctoral degree programme for the exchange of doctoral researchers between the two institutions.

This provided the starting point for an application to the German Research Foundation (DFG) to establish a German-Indian Research Training Group. Led by Frank Würthner and Mahesh Hariharan since 2024, it is the first Research Training Group to receive joint funding from the DFG and its Indian partner DST. Involving 20 professors from IISER TVM and the Würzburg faculty, it supports more than 50 doctoral researchers.

J.N. Moorthy has shown exceptional commitment to this Research Training Group – not only as Director, but also as a participating researcher. In 2025, the German and Indian partners further strengthened their cooperation with an exchange programme for Master’s students in chemistry and physics, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Career of the new honorary doctorate recipient

J.N. Moorthy, born in 1964, completed his Master’s degree in chemistry at Bangalore University in 1988. In 1994, he received his doctorate from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore for research in supramolecular solid-state chemistry before continuing his career as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Houston.

In 1995, supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he joined the Chair of Organic Chemistry II at the University of Würzburg for a year and a half. There, under the supervision of Professor Waldemar Adam, he deepened his expertise in photochemistry.

Following a stay at the University of Victoria, he returned to India as an assistant professor in 1998. After a brief period at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, he established his research group permanently at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

He was appointed professor there in 2008 on the strength of his successful research, which had been published in leading journals such as Angewandte Chemie and the Journal of the American Chemical Society. In recognition of his significant work on supramolecular solids and organic photochemistry, then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented him with one of India’s highest scientific honours, the “Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Chemical Sciences”, in 2008.

Further major honours include the “Millennium Plaque of Honor”, presented by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 103rd Indian Science Congress in 2016, the Silver Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India in 2018, and the APA Award of the Asian and Oceanian Photochemistry Association.

In 2019, J.N. Moorthy was appointed Director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER TVM). He headed the institute alongside his continuing position as Professor at IIT Kanpur until July 2026.

Lecture by the new honorary doctorate recipient

The ceremony was hosted by Ingo Fischer, Professor of Physical Chemistry and a member of the Executive Board of the JMU India Competence Centre (ICCUW). JMU President Paul Pauli and Professor Holger Helten, Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, delivered welcome addresses. Following the presentation of the honorary doctorate, J.N. Moorthy gave a lecture entitled “Molecular Design with a Twist: From Helicenes to Functions”.