Light Harvesting in Photosynthesis

Robert Croce is Head of the Biophysics Group and full professor in biophysics of photosynthesis/energy at VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She has well over 120 publications in peer-refereed journals, and is on the board of reviewing editors for Science magazine, and a member of the editorial board of BBA-Bioenergetics. She served as co-chair of the International Congress of Photosynthesis Research, and has been a member of the board of the International Society of Photosynthesis. She has been a grant reviewer on numerous panels, and is a member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) since 2013. She was an honorary professor in Molecular Photobiology at the University of Groningen from 2011-2014 and the Rosalind Franklin fellow (2006-2011). Rienk van Grondelle studied physics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and in 1982 joined the faculty there, where he was appointed full professor in 1987. He built up a large research group and has made major contributions to elucidating the fundamental physical mechanisms that underlie light harvesting and charge separation. In 2009 he was awarded an Academy Professorship for his outstanding contributions to the understanding of the first stage in photosynthesis. Herbert van Amerongen is full professor of Biophysics and Head of the Laboratory of Biophysics at Wageningen University, where he is also director of the MicroSpectroscopy Research Facility. He has served as an editor of the European Biophysics Journal and guest editor of a special issue of Photosynthesis Research, and was a member of the Dutch Platform of Physics Education. He was also co-organizer 17th European Conference on the Spectroscopy of Biological Molecules. Ivo van Stokkum is associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. He earned his Masters degree in experimental physics from the University of Nijmegen, and his Ph.D. in natural sciences from the University of Nijmegen.

Part 1: Building the Light Harvesting Apparatus: Pigments 1. Pigments: General Properties and Biosynthesis 2. Chlorophylls in a Protein Environment: How to Calculate Their Spectral and Redox Properties (From MO to DFT) 3. Carotenoids: Electronic States and Biological Functions Part 2: Building the Light Harvesting Apparatus: Proteins 4. Light Harvesting in Higher Plants and Green Algae 5. Light Harvesting in Cyanobacteria: The Phycobilisomes 6. The Purple Bacterial Photosynthetic Apparatus 7. Light Harvesting in Green Bacteria 8. Light Harvesting Complexes in Chlorophyll c-containing Algae 9. Reaction Centers: Structure and Mechanism 10. Organization of Photosynthetic Membrane Proteins into Supercomplexes 11. Photoprotective Excess Energy Dissipation Part 3: Light Harvesting Systems in Action: Energy Transfer and Electron Transport 12. The Exciton Concept 13. Modeling of Energy Transfer in Photosynthetic Light Harvesting 14. Quantum Aspects of Photosynthetic Energy Transfer 15. Photoinduced Electron Transfer in the Reaction Centers 16. Modulation of the Redox Potentials Part 4: Light Harvesting Systems in Action: Spectroscopy 17. Basic Optical Spectroscopy for Light Harvesting 18. Advanced Spectroscopy: Ultrafast and 2D 19. Experimental Evidence of Quantum Coherence in Photosynthetic Light Harvesting 20. Systems Biophysics: Global and Target Analysis of Light Harvesting and Photochemical Quenching in vivo Part 5: Artificial and Natural Photosynthesis 21. Light Harvesting, Photoregulation. and Photoprotection in Selected Artificial Photosynthetic Systems 22. Light to Useful Charge in Nanostructured Organic and Hybrid Solar Cells 23. Chlorophyll Fluorescence as a Tool for Describing the Operation and Regulation of Photosynthesis in vivo 24. Harvesting Sunlight with Cyanobacteria and Algae for Sustainable Production in a Bio-based Economy