Caleb Jordan has joined the Oliver group as a postdoctoral research associate working on the EPSRC programme grant Ultrafast Photochemical Dynamics in Complex Environments. He will use novel multidimensional optical spectroscopies to how probe chromophore-environment interactions alter photophysical dynamics in an array of different systems. Caleb was previously a PhD student in the group of Prof Jan Verlet at Durham.

A synchronised dual-Pharos laser system with two OPAs was recently installed in the Oliver labs at the University of Bristol by Light Conversion as part of BBSRC sLoLa grant The Circuits of Life (BB/W003449/1). The dual-amplified laser system is capable of seamlessly interrogating dynamics between 100 fs to 1 ms and will be used to track the long-range energy and electron transfer in novel photoactive proteins.

Daniel’s paper detailing the excited state dynamics of three TDPP molecules in solution has been accepted in Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.. The paper includes wavepacket signatures that remarkably originate from nuclear motions created at conical intersections on the excited state potential energy surface.

Welcome to Alex Hannon who joins the group as a summer project student funded by the Royal Society.

Congratulations to Fabiola Cardoso Delgado who passed her PhD viva voce exam. In her PhD studies, Fabiola used reflectance microscopy and time-correlated single photon counting to investigate the response of iridescent chloroplasts in Phyllagathis rotundifolia to different light conditions. Fabiola is now a post-doc at the University of Southern California with Steve Bradforth.

As part of a consortium led by Ross Anderson (Bristol Biochemistry), Tom Oliver has secured a BBSRC sLoLa grant BB/W003449/1 worth £4.9 m entitled “Creating and comprehending the circuitry of life: precise biomolecular design of multi-centre redox enzymes for a synthetic metabolism”.

The project seeks to investigate the flow of energy and electrons through individual and arrays of photoactive de novo proteins. The project encompasses protein design, modelling, synthesis and spectroscopic characterisation between groups from Bristol (Anderson, Curnow, Oliver and Mulholland), Portsmouth (Lichtenstein), UCL (Marechal) and UEA (Butt)

Within the Oliver group, ultrafast laser spectroscopies such as transient absorption, time-resolved infrared and 2D electronic spectroscopies will be used to unravel the excited state processes and the flow of energy within these designer proteins spanning femtoseconds-to-milliseconds timescales.

Bristol-led 6-year EPSRC programme grant Ultrafast Photochemical Dynamics in Complex Environments started last month. The grant led by Andrew Orr-Ewing seeks to understand how the photochemistry of molecules is changed by their environment using a variety of techniques that include: Coulomb explosion imaging, transient X-ray absorption spectroscopy, multidimensional optical spectroscopies, time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio multi-spawning theoretical calculations. The expansive collaborative project brings together groups from UCL (Helen Fielding and Graham Worth), Imperial (Jon Marangos), Oxford (Claire Vallance and Mark Brouard), Durham (Basile Curchod) and Bristol (Andrew Orr-Ewing and Tom Oliver).

Well done to Giordano Amoruso for passing his viva voce examination. His PhD thesis was entitled “Ultrafast photoinduced bimolecular proton, electron and energy transfer”.

Well done to Olivia Hawkins for passing her MSc(R) viva voce exam. Her MSc(R) thesis was entitled “Investigating the Excited State Dynamics of 1,6-Diphenyl-1,3,5- Hexatriene Using Time Correlated Single Photon Counting”.