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You are here: FRIAS Fellows Fellows 2021/22 Prof. Dr. Art van der Est

Prof. Dr. Art van der Est

Brock University
Biophysical Chemistry
External Senior Fellow
April - August 2015

CV

Art van der Est is professor of Chemistry at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.  He is a physcial chemist and specializes in light-induced biological electron transfer processes and time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy.  His work focuses on spin polarization in photosynthetic proteins and their artificial mimics.

He did his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of British Columbia obtaining his BSc (hons) degree in 1979 and his PhD under Prof. Dr. Elliott Burnell in 1987. He then joined the Physics Department of the Free University of Berlin as a NATO Science Fellow and received his habilitation under Prof. Dr. Dietmar Stehlik in 1999. He was appointed Assitant Professor of Chemistry at Brock University in 1999 and become Associate Professor in 2001 and Full Professor in 2005. In 2011 he spent a term as visiting professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan.

He is the recipent of the Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award and the Brock University Chancellor’s Chair for Research Excellence. He is author or co-author of more than 125 publications including a recent book entitled “The Biophysics of Photosynthesis”, which he co-edited.

 

Selected Publications

  • The Biophysics of Photosynthesis, J. Golbeck and A. van der Est, Eds (2014) Springer (New York)
  • P.K. Poddutoori, N. Zarrabi, A.G. Moiseev, R. Gumbau-Brisa, S. Vasil’ev and A. van der Est (2013) Long-Lived Charge Separation in New Axial Donor-Porphyrin-Acceptor Triads Based on Tetrathiafulvalene, Aluminum(III) Porphyrin and Naphthalenediimide, Chem. Eur. J. 19, 3148-3161
  • S. Mula, A. Savitsky, K. Möbius, W. Lubitz, J.H. Golbeck, M.D. Mamedov, A.Yu. Semenov, A. van der Est, (2012) Incorporation of a High Potential Quinone Reveals that Electron Transfer in Photosystem I Becomes Highly Asymmetric at Low Temperature Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 11, 946-956
  • A. van der Est and P.K. Poddutoori (2012) Light-Induced Spin Polarization in Porphyrin- Based Donor-Acceptor Dyads and Triads, Appl. Magn. Reson. 44, 201–318

 

FRIAS Research Project

Designed quantum transport in complex materials

We have recently synthesized a series of new porphyrin-based compounds that are excellent candidates for exploring the design principles for solar energy conversion. Preliminary studies show that they exhibit spin selective electron transfer. During the FRIAS project the associated electron spin polarization will be investigated in further detail to better understand the electron transfer pathways in these systems.  We have also been investigating light-induced electron transfer in the little-studied photosynthetic reaction centres of heliobacteria. These complexes contain the unusual pigment bacteriochlorophyll g, which isomerizes upon exposure to oxygen. We will use time-resolved EPR methods to investigate the effect of this isomerization on the efficiency and pathway of light-induced energy and electron transfer.