Minority Summer Research Fellows (Caltech MURFS)

CCI PI Harry Gray (center rear), CCI graduate students  Jillian Dempsey (right front), and Don Walker (not shown) talked with the Caltech MURFs.

Riccardo Peruzzini - Visiting Graduate student
I was born in Firenze, Italy, on 05/07/1984. After completing the “Liceo Scientifico” high school, I studied chemistry at the University of Florence and, on 2009, I obtained the master degree in Chimica delle Molecole Biologiche (Chemistry of the Biomolecules) working on the development of new NMR sequences for the study of unfolded proteins, under the supervision of Professors Ivano Bertini and Isabella C. Felli. At Caltech I will be involved in a project aimed at studying protein-protein interactions by TRFET techniques, under the supervision of Professor Harry B. Gray. My goal is to get familiar with this approach and to apply it to unravel mechanistic aspects of protein-protein interactions.

Professor Dr. Tapan Ganguly is at present senior Professor and Chair of the department of Spectroscopy of Indian association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, the oldest research institute in Asia.
His current research interests are development of solar/light energy conversion and organic-inorganic semiconductor nanocomposite devices, artificial photosynthesis, excitational energy transfer, photoinduced electron transfer processes, nano-,pico- and femtosecond laser dynamics. He is the Life member of many learned societies. He is also member (USA) of InterAmerican Photochemical Society. He is the recipient of several international and national awards including JSPS (Senior) award, Osaka University, Japan; Visiting Research Scholar award of University of Melbourne, Australia; Forchheimer award of the University of Jerusalem, Israel.

He is interested in electronic excitation of transition-metal chromophores and its structural and chemical effects; their possible use in molecular devices and solar-energy conversion. His recent research has focused on characterization of excited states of transition-metal carbonyl-diimine complexes and their ultrafast photochemistry and photophysics, often combining experiments with theoretical calculations. This currently extends to investigations of ultrafast dynamic coupling between electronically excited chromophores and the medium (solvent, protein…), intersystem crossing or acceleration of electron transfer in a scientific collaboration with the Gray group on azurins derivatized with Re-based chromophores.

Professor Zeev Gross is the Riva May & Robert Blum Professor of Chemistry at Technion, Israel.

The main emphasis in his research activity is on metal complexes of porphyrins, corroles, and related macrocycles regarding the following aspects: development of new and improvements on known catalytic processes, therapeutic approaches based on combating reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, conversion of sunlight into electricity and other approaches related to energy and environmental issues, and the isolation and characterization of complexes that are of fundamental interest to inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry.

Theis Brock-Nannestad - graduate student in Jesper Bendix lab at University of Copenhagen - will be visiting the Gray lab at Caltech to work on dye-sensitized solar cells.

His thesis focuses on the preparation and characterization of inorganic compounds. His work involves the preparation and characterization of Ru and Os complexes for use in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells, and the design and implementation of equipment for parallel measurement of solar cell performance under ambient conditions. The ligands used for solar cell dyes range from corroles to more traditional ligands such as substituted bipyridines and terpyridines. The synthesis is done at the University of Copenhagen, and electrical measurements are done in collaboration with the Danish Technological Institute.