Experimental investigations of Quantum dynamics of excited states of biomolecular chromophores

Last week in Germany I was pleased to meet Roland Wester who does beautiful experiments using crossed molecular beams to image complex chemical reaction dynamics. An example, is a recent Science paper where Roland's group studied a classic S2N subsitution reaction:
Cl– + CH3I -> I– + CH3Cl

Such experiments can provide significant tests on our basic understanding of reaction mechanisms, quantum dynamics and ab-initio electronic structure calculations.

I was delighted Roland told me he is planning to do some experiments on biological chromophore molecues including the Green Flourescent Protein chromophore. I am interested to learn more about this, particularly how it could provide a test of theoretical work of Seth Olsen and I, such as our recent paper in J. Chem. Phys., concerning photo-isomerisation of the GFP chromophore.

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