The Engel Group at The University of Chicago

The Engel Group strives to exploit femtosecond dynamics to steer and to control excited state reactivity. We use a combination of ultrafast spectroscopy, theory, synthesis, and biophysics to approach this problem.

 

Revealing Nature's Designs

Nature has had 2.4 billion years to evolve and engineer excited state dynamics. From photosynthesis to vision to photoenzymes, we examine natural mechanisms to steer excited states. Our goal is to isolate and identify new design principles to control quantum dynamics.

More on Photosynthesis

Steering Excited State Dynamics

Electronic excited states carry enough energy to make and break chemical bonds. Photochemistry operates outside the Born-Oppenheimer regime -- thereby escaping our standard chemical intuition. We seek new strategies to steer excited states and to control their reactivity.

More on Photochemistry
 

Seeing the Unseen

You can't engineer what you can't see. We build new spectroscopic tools to probe femtosecond dynamics of electronic excitations. In living cells, protein complexes, and small molecules, we capture how these systems evolve with unprecedented depth and specificity.

More on Spectroscopy

News from The Engel Group

Paper Accepted   9/14/2023

Indranil GhoshOlivia WedigJake Higgins

Congratulations to Indranil Ghosh, Olivia Wedig, Jake Higgins and our collaborators in the Mazziotti Group on having their paper entitled "Quantum sensing using multi-qubit quantum systems and the Pauli polytope" accepted at Physical Review Research.

New Summer Researcher   8/21/2023

Nate Lopez

Welcome to Nate Lopez, who is joining the group as a Summer Researcher.

Poster Award   8/15/2023

Indranil Ghosh

Congratulations to Indranil Ghosh on winning a poster award from the PHYS Division of ACS at the national meeting in San Francisco

Fellow of the American Chemical Society   8/14/2023

Greg Engel

Greg Engel was honored at the ACS National Meeting and inducted as an ACS Fellow.

More News

Specific Research Areas

Quantum Biology activities within the Engel Group

Quantum Biology
Ultrafast Spectroscopy activities within the Engel Group

Ultrafast Spectroscopy
Quantum Materials activities within the Engel Group

Quantum Materials
Photocatalysis activities within the Engel Group

Photocatalysis
Theory activities within the Engel Group

Theory
Coherent Dynamics activities within the Engel Group

Coherent Dynamics
Light Harvesting Materials activities within the Engel Group

Light Harvesting Materials
Ultrafast Chiral Response activities within the Engel Group

Ultrafast Chiral Response
Live Cell Studies activities within the Engel Group

Live Cell Studies

Recent Publications

I. Avdic, L.M. Sager-Smith, I. Ghosh, O.C. Wedig, J.S. Higgins, G.S. Engel, and D.A. Mazziotti, "Quantum sensing using multi-qubit quantum systems and the Pauli polytope", Physical Review Research (accepted) 2023.

S. Sohoni, L.T. Lloyd, A. Hitchcock, C. MacGregor-Chatwin, A. Iwanicki, I. Ghosh, Q. Shen, C.N. Hunter, and G.S. Engel, "The Phycobilisome's Exciton Transfer Efficiency Relies on an Energetic Funnel Driven by Chromophore-Linker Protein Interactions", JACS 145, 11659–11668 2023.

G. Lin, G.T. Nash, T. Luo, I. Ghosh, S. Sohoni, A.J. Christofferson, G. Liu, G.S. Engel, W. Lin, "Two-Dimensional Nanosonosensitizers Facilitate Energy Transfer to Enhance Sonodynamic Therapy", Advanced Materials, 35, 2212069 2023.

J.S. Higgins, A.R. Dardia, C.J. Ndife, L.T. Lloyd, E.M. Bain, and G.S. Engel, "Leveraging Dynamical Symmetries in Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectra to Extract Population Transfer Pathways", J. Phys. Chem. A 126 3594–3603 2022.

P. Navotnaya,* S. Sohoni,* L.T. Lloyd, S. Abdulhadi, P.-C. Ting, J.S. Higgins, and G.S. Engel, "Annihilation of Excess Excitations along Phycocyanin Rods Precedes Downhill Flow to Allophycocyanin Cores in the Phycobilisome of Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942", JPCB 126 23–29 2022.

* These authors contributed equally

J.S. Higgins,* M.A. Allodi,* L.T. Lloyd, J.P. Otto, S.H. Sohail, R.G. Saer, R.E. Wood, S.C. Massey, P.-C. Ting, R.E. Blankenship, G.S. Engel, "Redox conditions correlated with vibronic coupling modulate quantum beats in photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes", PNAS 118 e2112817118 2021.

* These authors contributed equally

All Publications

Affiliations

University of Chicago
Chemistry Department
Biophysical Sciences
Institute for Molecular Engineering
James Franck Institute
Institute for Biophysical Dynamics
MRSEC
College
quantum
spectroscopy
materials

Funding

AFOSR
DARPA
Dreyfus
Searle
Keck
DTRA
Lockheed Martin
UChicago
NSSEFF
NSF
NIH
QNRF
DOE
Sloan