Professor Harry A. Frank
Professor of Chemistry
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT

Monday, March 8, 1999
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

Carotenoids function in photosynthetic organisms as light-harvesting and photoprotective agents. To understand the molecular details of how these processes are accomplished, we have incorporated a wide range of natural and synthetic carotenoids into reaction center and antenna pigment-protein complexes isolated from carotenoidless mutants of photosynthetic bacteria. Steady state and transient spectroscopic investigations of these samples provide the means to study systematically the effect of varying the structure, extent of pi-electron conjugation, energy levels, spectral overlap, and dynamics of carotenoids on their photochemical properties and function.

Tea and coffee will be served in R3151 Beckman Institute at 2:15pm.