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

New Undergraduate Researcher   9/30/2019

Anna Dardia

Welcome to Anna Dardia, who is joining the group as an undergraduate researcher.

New Support   7/23/2019

Engelgroup

We have received funding from DOE to study in vivo energy transfer in cyanobacteria. Many thanks to DOE for supporting our reserach.

New Summer Researcher   7/22/2019

Kathryn Segner

Welcome to Kathryn Segner, who is joining the group as a summer researcher.

Paper Published   6/25/2019

Lili WangMarco Allodi

Congratulations to Lili Wang and Marco Allodi on having their paper entitled, "Quantum coherences reveal excited state dynamics in biophysical systems", published in Nature Reviews Chemistry.

More News

Specific Research Areas

Quantum Biology

Quantum Biology
Ultrafast Spectroscopy

Ultrafast Spectroscopy
Quantum Materials

Quantum Materials
Photocatalysis

Photocatalysis
Theory

Theory
Coherent Dynamics

Coherent Dynamics
Light Harvesting Materials

Light Harvesting Materials
Ultrafast Chiral Response

Ultrafast Chiral Response
Live Cell Studies

Live Cell Studies

Recent Publications

S-H Yeh, R. Hoehn, M.A. Allodi, G.S. Engel, and S. Kais, "Elucidation of near-resonance vibronic coherence lifetimes by nonadiabatic electronic-vibrational state character mixing", PNAS 116 18263-18268 2019.

L. Wang*, M.A. Allodi* and G.S. Engel, "Quantum coherences reveal excited state dynamics in biophysical systems", Nat. Rev. Chem. 3 477–490 2019.

S.C. Massey, P.-C. Ting, S.-H. Yeh, P.D. Dahlberg, S.H. Sohail, M.A. Allodi, E.C. Martin, S. Kais, C.N. Hunter, and G.S. Engel, "Orientational Dynamics of Transition Dipoles and Exciton Relaxation in LH2 from Ultrafast Two-Dimensional Anisotropy", JPCL, 10 270–277 2019.

Z. Hu, G.S. Engel, and S. Kais, "Double-excitation manifold’s effect on exciton transfer dynamics and the efficiency of coherent light harvesting", PCCP 20, 30032-30040 2018.

E.M. Janke*, N.E. Williams*, C. She, D. Zherebetskyy, M. Hudson, L. Wang, D.J. Gosztola, R.D. Schaller, B. Lee, C. Sun, G.S. Engel, D.V. Talapin, "The origin of broad emission spectra in InP quantum dots: contributions from structural and electronic disorder", JACS 140, 15791–15803 2018.

Z. Hu, G.S. Engel, and S. Kais, "Connecting bright and dark states through accidental degeneracy caused by lack of symmetry", J. Chem. Phys. 148, 204307 2018.

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