Department of Chemistry
Yale University
225 Prospect Street
PO Box 208107
New Haven CT 06520 8107
203 432 3915

Gary Brudvig

Eugene Higgins Professor and Chair of Chemistry
Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Member of Yale faculty since 1982

E-mail: gary.brudvig@yale.edu
Web site: http://ursula.chem.yale.edu/~brudvig

Research Our research aims to define how nature has solved the difficult problem of efficient light-driven, four-electron oxidation of water to O2 and to use this understanding to develop new artificial processes for solar energy conversion. We use spectroscopic, biophysical and molecular biological methods to probe the structure and function of the redox centers, the kinetics and yields of electron-transfer reactions, and the chemistry of water oxidation in photosystem II. The studies on photosystem II provide insight into the design of artificial systems that split water. Toward this goal, we are investigating inorganic model complexes of the tetramanganese active site in photosystem II in collaboration with Professor Crabtree. The synergism between the inorganic and biological chemistry is an important aspect of this research and has yielded the first homogeneous oxomanganese water-oxidation catalyst. We are also working on a collaborative project to develop artificial processes that use solar energy for fuel production together with Professors Batista, Crabtree and Schmuttenmaer. Our aim is to use a bioinspired approach for solar fuel production based on our water-oxidation catalysts attached to nanostructured TiO2 (see figure).

Education
B.S. University of Minnesota, 1976
Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1981
Miller Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1980-82

Honors
Searle Scholar, 1983-86
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, 1985-90
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 1986-88
Elected Fellow of the AAAS, 1995

Recent Publications
S. Das, C.D. Incarvito, R.H. Crabtree, & G. W. Brudvig. Molecular Recognition in the Selective Oxygenation of Saturated C-H Bonds by a Dimanganese Catalyst. Science 2006, 312, 1941-1943. (highlighted by R. Mas-Balleste and L. Que, Jr. in Science 312, pp. 1885-1886 and as “News of the Week” in Chem. & Eng. News 84 (27), p. 11)

J.P. McEvoy & G.W. Brudvig. Water-Splitting Chemistry of Photosystem II. Chem. Rev. 2006, 106, 4455-4483 (featured as one of Chemical Reviews' Hot Papers: January-March 2008, based on Thomson ISI®'s Essential Science Indicators).

E.M. Sproviero, J.A. Gascón, J.P. McEvoy, G.W. Brudvig, & V.S. Batista. Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics Study of the Catalytic Cycle of Water Splitting in Photosystem II. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 3428-3442 (selected for inclusion in a special JACS Select volume on Molecular Modeling of Complex Chemical Systems).

C.A. Tracewell & G.W. Brudvig. Multiple Redox-Active Chlorophylls in the Secondary Electron-Transfer Pathways of Oxygen-Evolving Photosystem II. Biochemistry 2008, 47, 11559–11572.

G. Li, E.M. Sproviero, R.C. Snoeberger III, N. Iguchi, J.D. Blakemore, R.H. Crabtree, G.W. Brudvig, & V.S. Batista. Deposition of an Oxomanganese Water Oxidation Catalyst on TiO2 Nanoparticles: Computational Modeling, Assembly and Characterization. Energy & Environ. Sci. 2009, 2, 230-238.