David N. Beratan, R.J. Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Pratt School of Engineering


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

Teaching (Spring 2026):

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)
Elizabeth Hatcher (2006-2007)
Christopher Rinderspacher (2007 - 2009)
Ravindra Venkatramani (2006-2012)
Balamurugan Desinghu (2006 - 2010)
Xiangqian Hu (2005-2011)
Alexander Balaeff (2005-2012)
Gerard Zuber (2004 - 2008)
Shahar Keinan (2004 - 2011)
Ilya Balabin (2004 - 2009)

Recent Publications (More Publications)

Smith, AJ; Chen, CD; Wang, B; Huang, X; Zheng, C; Nam, Y; Beratan, DN, From single step hops to emergent biological phenomena., Journal of inorganic biochemistry, vol. 276 (December, 2025), pp. 113191 [doi] [abs]
Alatis, JA; Stephenson, RH; Wilcox, AC; Mastrocinque, F; Widel, ZXW; Bullard, G; Li, E; Alatis, NR; Naquin, J; Bai, Y; Zhang, P; Beratan, DN; Therien, MJ, Driving Force Dependent Photoinduced Charge Transfer Dynamics in Polymer-Wrapped Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes., Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 147 no. 47 (November, 2025), pp. 43822-43830 [doi] [abs]
Mendis, KC; Li, X; Valdiviezo, J; Cox, SD; Zhang, P; Thalaththani Rallage, NSS; Ren, T; Beratan, DN; Rubtsov, IV, Photo-induced electron transfer dynamics and its mid-IR modulation of an ethyne bridged donor-acceptor complex., Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP, vol. 27 no. 38 (October, 2025), pp. 20668-20679 [doi] [abs]
Singh, N; Zhang, P; Beratan, DN, The influence of protein electrostatics on potential inversion in flavoproteins., Chemical science, vol. 16 no. 39 (October, 2025), pp. 18398-18410 [doi] [abs]
Huang, X; Yuly, JL; Zhang, P; DeGrado, WF; Therien, MJ; Beratan, DN, Design of Light Driven Hole Bifurcating Proteins., ACS central science, vol. 11 no. 10 (October, 2025), pp. 1911-1920, American Chemical Society (ACS) [doi] [abs]