Abstract

The dynamics of complex system in biology and materials usually contain many elementary processes. To resolve their detailed evolution and determine their actual timescales, we need to combine various state-of-the-art methods to dissect those processes. Here, we used femtosecond spectroscopy, molecular biology and ultrafast electron microscopy to map out their entire dynamics. We report several complex systems in biology and materials such as DNA repair by photoenzyme, dimer dissociation of photoreceptor UVR8 and nanomaterial dynamics. These results reveal their significant complexity and the high spatiotemporal study is a necessity to completely reveal their dynamics and mechanisms at the most fundamental level.

Biography

Dongping Zhong received his B.S. in laser physics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and his Ph.D. in chemical physics from California Institute of Technology in 1999 under Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail. For his Ph.D. work, Dr. Zhong received the Herbert Newby McCoy Award and the Milton and Francis Clauser Doctoral Prize from Caltech. He continued his postdoctoral research in the same group with focus on protein dynamics. In 2002, he joined The Ohio State University as an Assistant Professor and currently he is Robert Smith Professor of Physics and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He is the Packard Fellow, Sloan Fellow, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, Guggenheim Fellow, APS Fellow, AAAS Fellow, as well as the recipient of the NSF CAREER award and the Outstanding Young Research award from the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers. He was the international Jury member in physical science for the L’Oréal-UNESCO awards for“Women in Science.”His early work on femtochemistry and recent work on the enzyme dynamics have been cited in the press release and Noble lecture of two Nobel Prizes (1999 and 2015). His research interests include photoenzyme, photoreceptor, biomolecular interactions, and ultrafast protein electron transfer dynamics using ultrafast photons and electrons. In 2024, he moved to China and joined Shanghai Jiao Tong University and builds a Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology with focus on complex dynamics in materials and biology.