ESR5: Vasilis Petropoulos

Host: Politecnico di Milano, Physics Department, Italy

Ultrafast coherent spectroscopy of natural light-harvesting systems

Supervisor: Prof. Giulio Cerullo

MUSIQ Research

The aim is to investigate the presence of coherences in natural light-harvesting (LH) complexes and understanding their biological function. To this purpose we will perform two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy experiments on wild-type prototype LH proteins extracted from plants and mosses and with different biological role. Due to the overcome of the Fourier limit with this technique we achieve high temporal and spectral resolution, consequently we are able to establish the role of individual chromophores in the coherence properties of LH proteins.

Scientific Background

He awarded his B.Sc. (highest score within all graduates of his year) in Physics and his M.Sc. in Photonics at the University of Patras, in Greece. His Master Thesis was on ”Self-assembly of Bodipy chromophores and aggregation induced NIR emission”. During his Master’s degree, he implemented a three-month Placement internship to the Politecnico di Milano in where he performed two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy experiments on light-harvesting complexes of higher plants.

Science Slam