Mechanisms of Photochemical Reactions - Emphasis on Vitamin D Field

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

The Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program in the Chemistry Division at the National Science Foundation supports Professor Jack Saltiel of Florida State University, who will study photochemical processes in the vitamin D field. He will investigate their medium dependence in order to resolve experimental discrepancies and to achieve the mechanistic understanding needed for theoretical advances. Photochemical and spectroscopic observations will be employed to characterize the photochemistry and photophysics of individual ground state conformers obtained by rotation about essential single bonds. The goal is to resolve composite responses into the individual responses of each molecular entity that contributes to the measured quantity. The research also involves synthesis of molecules designed to test theories on the photophysical and photochemical responses of organic molecules to light absorption. The research aims to provide the experimental foundation to gain a theoretical understanding of the behavior of electronically excited states. Broader impacts of the research are to understand the central role of the processes that trigger natural responses to light, as in vitamin D formation in the skin, in vision, and in photosynthesis. The theory of electronically excited states is a scientific frontier whose progress relies on valid experimental conclusions such as those provided by this research. Other broader impacts expected to result from the funded research are to continue the long and uninterrupted string of undergraduates who have prospered by participation in research with Professor Saltiel. For example, of the recent students, two have earned PhDs in biochemistry and biophysics from Rice and Stanford Universities; one student was an NSF Graduate Fellow at UC Berkeley and is now at Harvard Law School; two students are currently Biophysics graduate students at Caltech and Yale. With respect to gender, one female NSF graduate fellow in Biophysics now at Yale, was a freshman music major when she joined Professor Saltiel's research group. Finally, a female Hispanic student who spent a summer in Professor Saltiel's lab later became an NSF Graduate Fellow in Biochemistry at UNC Chapel Hill and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University.