Center for Excitonics
Seminar Series Announcement
The Center for Excitonics is an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by
the
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science and Office of Basic Energy
Sciences
The Center for Excitonics invites you to join us at the next seminar of
the
2009 series. Please forward this information on to others who might be
interested in attending this and other center seminars.
Title: Design Principles of Coherent Photosynthetic
Energy
Transport: Insights from Two Dimensional
Electronic Spectroscopy
Presenter: Professor Greg Engel
Organization: Department of Chemistry
The James Franck Institute
University of Chicago
Date: November 10, 2009
Time: 3:00 - 4:00pm
Place: MIT 36-428
Center URL:
http://www.rle.mit.edu/excitonics
Seminar URL:
http://www.rle.mit.edu/excitonics/engel-111009.html
Abstract
Life on earth is effectively solar powered, yet how energy moves through
photosynthetic complexes prior to the biochemical steps of
photosynthesis is still not completely understood. Evidence for a purely
quantum mechanical mechanism of energy transfer in photosynthetic
complexes was discovered in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex of
Chlorobium tepidum in 2007. The quantum beating phenomenon
observed in this complex is now much better understood. Further, data
indicate that this mechanism is not specific to FMO, but manifests in
reaction centers of purple bacteria and antenna complexes of higher
plants. Having observed such a mechanism in disparate photosynthetic
complexes, we are exploring what the minimal requirements are to support
quantum coherence transfer in a biological environment and how
such an environment might be reproduced synthetically. Emerging details
in this story will be presented along with preliminary data from
experimental efforts to dissect the details of energy transfer, the basis
for the efficiency of the energy transfer process and efforts to isolate
signals at room temperature.
Bio
Greg Engel is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and of The James Franck
Institute at The University
of Chicago. His research group focusses on quantum effects in biological
environments, specifically
energy transfer in photosynthesis and non-Born-Oppenheimer couplings in
photochemistry. Greg conducted
his postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley and LBNL as a Miller Postdoctoral
Fellow after receiving his Ph.D.
at Harvard in the field of Atmospheric Chemistry. Greg has been honored
as a Searle Scholar and an Air
Force Young Investigator; he received the 2009 PECASE Award and was named
to Scientific American's Top
50 Leaders in Science.
ergydrade, J.L Alonso, Pablo Echenique, L. Wirtz, A. Marini, M.
Gruning, C. Rozzi, D. Varsano and E.K.U. Gross.