Group Members

Senior Scientist

Division Director of the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division (MBIB)

co-principal Investigator at the Lquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) 

co-principal investigator at the Electrochemical Dynamics and Reactions on Surface (CEDARS)

Office: Bldg. 66, Rm 325

            Bldg. 33, Rm 250

Phone: 510-486-4366

Email: jyano@lbl.gov

Junko came to Berkeley in 2001 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Physical Biosciences Division at LBNL, advancing to become a Staff Research Associate (2003), Career Scientist (2006), and a Staff Scientist (2010). Presently, she is a Senior Scientist (2015) and Division Deputy for Science (2020) in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division. Since 2023, she has been serving as the Division Director of MBIB.

Her research focus is on problems of importance to energy, especially renewable energy sources. The group applies X-ray spectroscopy, crystallography, and other spectroscopy methods to understand biological and inorganic systems, studying how photosynthetic organisms convert light energy into chemical energy. Her group uses synchrotron and X-ray free electron laser (XFel) facilities to study catalytic systems under functional conditions at room temperature. These methods allow the group to study structure-function relationships by following reactions in real-time and the effect of the protein environment on the active site.

Junko is also a member of LiSA (Liquid Sunlight Alliance) and currently serves as the Deputy Director of LiSA. She studies artificial photosynthetic systems, combining her interests in natural photosynthesis with inorganic systems that can be used to engineer practical devices.