Research

Many biological processes involve the conversion of energy into forms that are usable for chemical transformations and are quantum mechanical in nature. Such processes involve chemical reactions, light absorption, formation of excited electronic states, transfer of excitation energy, and the transfer of electrons and protons in chemical processes such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration. We use computations to model biological interactions in light of quantum mechanical effects.

We use physical principles to understand complex biological phenomena of proteins, DNA, protein complexes, and other biomolecular structures at the atomic level. No single approach fully characterizes the research that falls into this area as the methods we employ are often problem dependent and complex computer simulations are called for.

Spin chemistry deals with the effects of electron and nuclear spins on the rates and yields of chemical reactions. From many its applications, we are particularly interested in possible biological effects of extremely low frequency and radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, the mechanisms by which animals can sense the Earth's magnetic field for orientation and navigation, and the possibility of manipulating radical lifetimes so as to control the outcome of their reactions.

Control and manipulation of nanoscaled systems has important industrial and biomedical applications, such as information storage, magnetosensing, and many others. As the self-organization phenomena are often driven by general physical principles, we are interested in studying these phenomena in smart nanostructured materials of varied degrees of complexity ranging from atomic clusters, carbon nanotubes, composite nanowires, fractals on surfaces and biomolecules.

To address the complexity of problems of interest we utilize of a wide range of computational methods. We use standard program packages where appropriate, but also develop our own codes when computations beyond the limits of standard software are necessary. In particular, we suggest new theoretical approaches and methods, develop and justify new models for the description of complex molecular systems.