Gary Brudvig
Professor and Chair of Chemistry
Professor of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, Biophysical Chemistry & Inorganic Chemistry
Biographical Sketch:
B.S. University of Minnesota, 1976
Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1981
Miller Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1980-1982
Joined Yale faculty 1982
Searle Scholar, 1983-1986
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, 1985-1990
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 1986-1988
Elected fellow of the AAAS 1995
Research Description
What is the molecular basis for energy transduction in plant photosynthesis? This question is the focus of our research program. One of the primary targets of our research is the plant enzyme called photosystem II that catalyzes the light-induced oxidation of water to dioxygen and reduction of quinones to quinols. We use spectroscopic, biophysical and molecular biological methods to probe the structure and function of the redox centers, the kinetics and yields of electron-transfer reactions, and the chemistry of water oxidation in photosystem II. Our aim is to define how Nature has solved the difficult problem of efficient light-driven, four-electron oxidation of water to dioxygen.
The studies on photosystem II provide insight into the design of artificial systems that split water. Toward this goal, we are investigating inorganic models of the tetramanganese active site in photosystem II in collaboration with Professor Crabtree. Because the model complexes are more easily characterized, the inorganic studies provide important information that can aid the interpretation of results from the biological system. On the other hand, the information from the biophysical studies better define the nature of the catalytic manganese complex that is to be modeled. The synergism between the inorganic and biological chemistry is an important aspect of this research and has recently yielded the first inorganic manganese water-oxidation catalyst modeled after the oxygen-evolving complex in photosystem II.