David N. Beratan, Professor of Chemistry

Contact Info:

Office Location:	5311 FFSC
Office Phone:	(919) 660-1526
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.chem.duke.edu/~beratan/

Teaching (Fall 2013):

• CHEM 590.01, SPECIAL TOPICS IN CHEMISTRY Synopsis

  French Sci 2237, Th 06:15 PM-08:45 PM

• PHYSICS 414.01, INTRODUCTION TO BIOPHYSICS Synopsis

  Physics 150, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

  (also cross-listed as CHEM 302.01)

Education:

PhD	California Institute of Technology	1985
BS	Duke University	1980

Specialties:

Physical
Theory and Modeling
Biomolecular Structure and Function
Nanoscience and Materials

Research Interests:

Dr. Beratan is developing theoretical approaches to understand the function of complex molecular and macromolecular systems, including: the molecular underpinnings of energy harvesting and charge transport in biology; the mechanism of solar energy capture and conversion in man-made structures; the nature of charge conductivity in naturally occurring nucleic acids and in synthetic constructs, including the photochemical repair of damaged DNA in extremophiles; CH bond activation by copper oxygenase enzymes; the flow of charge in bacterial appendages on the micrometer length scale; the theoretical foundations for inverse molecular design - the property driven discovery of chemical structures with optimal properties; the exploitation of molecular diversity in the mapping of molecular and materials "space"; the use of infra-red excitation to manipulate electron transport through molecules; the optical signatures of molecular chirality and the influence of chirality on charge transport. Prof. Beratan is affiliated with the Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, as well as Duke's programs in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Structural Biology and Biophysics, Nanosciences, and Phononics.

Keywords:

electron transfer theory • tunneling pathways • theory of chirality • bioenergetics • inverse design

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Chetan Rupakheti  
• Jiaxing Lin  
• Nicholas Polizzi  
• Yves Wang  
• Nan Jiang  

Postdocs Mentored

• David Minh (2011/11-present)  
• Julia Contreras-Garcia (2009 - 2011)  
• Aaron Virshup (2009/12-present)  
• Aleksey Kuznetsov (2009/12-present)  
• Christopher Rinderspacher (2007 - 2009)  
• Elizabeth Hatcher (2006-2007)  
• Balamurugan Desinghu (2006 - 2010)  
• Ravindra Venkatramani (2006 - present)  
• Xiangqian Hu (2005 - present)  
• Alexander Balaeff (2005 - present)  
• Gerard Zuber (2004 - 2008)  
• Shahar Keinan (2004 - 2011)  
• Ilya Balabin (2004 - 2009)  

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. A. Balaeff, S.L. Craig, and D.N. Beratan, B-DNA to Zip-DNA: Simulating a DNA Transition to a Novel Structure with Enhanced Charge Transport Characteristics, J. Phys. Chem. A no. 115 (2011), pp. 9377-9391
2. K. Susumu, J.A.N. Fisher, J.R. Zheng, D.N. Beratan, A.G. Yodh, and M.J. Therien, Two-photon absorption properties of proquinoidal D-A-D and A-D-A quadrupolar chromophores, J. Phys. Chem. A no. 115 (2011), pp. 5525-5539
3. H. Carias, D.N. Beratan, and S.S. Skourtis, Floquet analysis for vibronically modulated electron tunneling, J. Phys. Chem. B no. 115 (2011), pp. 5510-5518
4. J. Contreras-García, S. Keinan, D.N. Beratan, W. Yang, E.R. Johnson, R. Chaudret, NCIPLOT: a program for plotting non-covalent interaction regions, J. Chem. Theory Comput. no. 7 (2011), pp. 625-632
5. R. Venkatramani, S. Keinan, A. Balaeff, and D.N. Beratan, Electron transfer in nucleic acids: Black, white, and gray, Coord. Chem. Revs. no. 255 (2011), pp. 635-648