David N. Beratan, R.J. Reynolds 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 2017):

• CHEM 590.01, SPECIAL TOPICS IN CHEMISTRY Synopsis

  French Sci 2237, TuTh 04:40 PM-05:55 PM

Education:

Ph.D.	California Institute of Technology	1986
B.S.	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:

bioenergetics • Biophysics • Biosensing Techniques • Chemistry, Physical • chemistry, physical and theoretical • Chemistry, Physical and Theoretical • Drug Design • electron transfer theory • Electron Transport • Electronics • Energy Transfer • inverse design • Models, Theoretical • Nanotechnology • Optical Rotation • Oxidation-Reduction • Oxides • Oxidoreductases • Quantum Theory • Semiconductors • Stochastic Processes • theory of chirality • tunneling pathways

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Goke Ojewole  
• Zheng Ma  
• Chaoren Liu  
• Chetan Rupakheti  
• Ruibin Liu  
• Gary Zhang  
• Jiaxing Lin  
• Nicholas Polizzi  
• Yves Wang  
• Nan Jiang  

Postdocs Mentored

• Agostino Migliore (2013/01-present)  
• Shoresh Shafai (2013/01-present)  
• David Minh (2011 - 2013)  
• Julia Contreras-Garcia (2009 - 2011)  
• Aaron Virshup (2009/12-present)  
• Aleksey Kuznetsov (2009-2013)  
• Christopher Rinderspacher (2007 - 2009)  
• Elizabeth Hatcher (2006-2007)  
• Balamurugan Desinghu (2006 - 2010)  
• Ravindra Venkatramani (2006-2012)  
• Xiangqian Hu (2005-2011)  
• Alexander Balaeff (2005-2012)  
• Gerard Zuber (2004 - 2008)  
• Shahar Keinan (2004 - 2011)  
• Ilya Balabin (2004 - 2009)  

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Beratan, DN; Waldeck, DH, DNA charge transfer: Hot holes break the speed limit., Nature Chemistry, vol. 8 no. 11 (October, 2016), pp. 992-993 [doi]
2. Polizzi, NF; Therien, MJ; Beratan, DN, Mean First-Passage Times in Biology, Israel Journal of Chemistry, vol. 56 no. 9-10 (October, 2016), pp. 816-824 [doi]
3. Liu, C; Xiang, L; Zhang, Y; Zhang, P; Beratan, DN; Li, Y; Tao, N, Engineering nanometre-scale coherence in soft matter., Nature Chemistry, vol. 8 no. 10 (October, 2016), pp. 941-945 [doi]  [abs]
4. Zhang, Y; Zhang, WB; Liu, C; Zhang, P; Balaeff, A; Beratan, DN, DNA charge transport: Moving beyond 1D, Surface Science, vol. 652 (October, 2016), pp. 33-38, ISSN 0039-6028 [doi]
5. Skourtis, SS; Liu, C; Antoniou, P; Virshup, AM; Beratan, DN, Dexter energy transfer pathways., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, vol. 113 no. 29 (July, 2016), pp. 8115-8120 [doi]  [abs]