Faculty Guide

Title

Professor of Biophysical Chemistry

Chemistry

Expertise

Biophysical chemistry; solid state NMR spectroscopy; statistical thermodynamics; energy transduction by bacteriorhodopsin; buoyancy of aquatic micro-organisms; pre-biotic polymers; water as a participant in protein function; determinism and the law.

Profile

Major academic interests: Solid state NMR studies of structure and functional mechanisms in membrane proteins. Solid state NMR studies of polymers implicated in pre-biotic chemistry. Statistical thermodynamics of spontaneous order in crowded solutions of self-assembling proteins and surfactants. Explicit modeling of water in channels and active sites. Innovations in chemical education. Implications of advances in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying human behavior for concepts of responsibility and theories of justice and punishment.

Awards and Honors

Distinguished Lecturer, Sigma Xi (2003 - 2005)

Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1999)

Fellow, American Physical Society (1993)

National Science Foundation Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers for "significant achievements as a researcher and teacher and potential future contributions to American science" (1992)

Courses Taught

CHEM	15a	Honors General Chemistry: Principles of Material Evolution I
CHEM	15b	Honors General Chemistry: Principles of Material Evolution II
CHEM	141a	Thermodynamics and Statistical Thermodynamics
CHEM	142a	Quantum Mechanics and Spectroscopy
CHEM	240c	Physical Chemistry Seminar

Scholarship

Majanov I and Herzfeld J. "HCN Polymers Characterized by SSNMR: Chains and Sheets Formed in the Neat Liquid." Journal of Chemical Physics (2009).

Majanov I and Herzfeld J. "HCN Polymers Characterized by SSNMR: Solid State Reaction of Crystalline Tetramer (diaminomaleonitrile)." Journal of Chemical Physics (2009).

Matsuki Y, Eddy MT and Herzfeld J. "Spectroscopy by Integration of Frequency and Time Domain Information (SIFT) for Fast Acquisition of High Resolution Dark Spectra." Journal of the American Chemical Society (2009).

Sivertsen AC, Bayro MJ, Belenky M, Griffin RG and Herzfeld J. "Solid-state NMR evidence for inequivalent GvpA subunits in gas vesicles.." Journal of Molecular Biology 387. (2009): 1032-1039.

Mak-Jurkauskas ML, Bajaj VS, Hornstein MK, Belenky M, Griffin RG and Herzfeld J. "Energy transformations early in the bacteriorhodopsin photocycle revealed by DNP-enhanced solid-state NMR." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 105. (2008): 883-888.