Our Research

Although the global demand for energy is steadily increasing, most of the current sources of energy are either nonrenewable, non-sustainable, or contribute toward greenhouse gases in the environment. In addition to wind power and bio-fuels, solar energy is a renewable and clean alternative energy source, and development of methods to convert it into transportable fuels in a cost effective and efficient manner is a critical need. Solar energy is used efficiently in nature via the process of photosynthesis in plants, cyanobacteria, and algae. Studying how nature accomplishes these difficult reactions in  natural photosynthetic systems and along with the study of artificial photosynthetic systems and other energy-relevant metalloenzymes is our overall research objective.