events

excitonics seminar series

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.