Welcome! Our group focuses on understanding light-induced vibronic processes leading to photosynthesis, biomolecular aggregation, photoprotection and stability. We utilize first-principle based theories, mixed quantum-classical and quantum mechanical-molecular mechanics algorithms. Depending on the problem, we write our own codes as well. Specifically, we seek to investigate the mechanism of excitation energy transfer amongst chlorophylls in photosynthetic light harvesting complexes, the photoprotective pathways amongst aromatic amino acids in crystallin proteins against cataract and the role of spatiotemporal synergism between weak noncovalent interactions in biomolecular function.
News: Mar 2023: Jayashree's paper in collaboration with Prof. Anand Srivastava, MBU, IISc is accepted in J. Phys. Chem. B. Aug 2023: Bishnu Prasad Rakshit from IACS, Kolkata joins the group as a project assistant. Welcome, Bishnu! June 2023: Jayashree joins Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) Bengaluru as an Assistant Professor after finishing her Ramanujan Fellowship at IISc Bangalore. May 2023: Pranav defended his M.S. thesis in Physics and will move to a position at CapitolOne company from July. Farewell, Pranav! February 2023: Jayashree's article in Resonance is published in the February issue after the article being accepted a year earlier! January 2023: Pranav rejoins my group for his MS thesis. Welcome back, Pranav! December 2022: Jayashree secures an assistant professor position at Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology in Bengaluru. She will begin her position in June 2023. Oct 2022: Pranav and Divij's paper on "Modeling vibronic spectra of linear aggregates in MATLAB" is accepted in Student Journal of Physics. Congratulations, Pranav and Divij! Aug 2022: Jayashree's paper in collaboration with Prof. Satish Patil, Prof. Jyotishman Dasgupta, Prof. Andrew Musser and Prof. Robert Bittl on "Parallel triplet formation pathways in a singlet fission material" is accepted in Nat. Comm. July 2022: Jayashree's paper in collaboration with Prof. Aloke Das (IISER-Pune) on "Sequence dependent folding motifs of the secondary structures of Gly-Pro and Pro-Gly containing oligopeptides" is accepted in PCCP. May 2022: Debabrata leaves the group to move on to a postdoc offer at Taiwan. Farewell, Debabrata! Rishik is leaving to do an internship at Luxemburg in condensed matter physics. Farewell and good luck, Rishik! Apr 2022: Shivani accepts graduate program offer from UW-Madison and will leave the group. Congratulations, and farewell, Shivani! Nandan and Mihir successfully complete their undergraduate thesis requirements. Congratulations, Nandan and Mihir! They will be moving on to other things from now on. Farewell, Nandan and Mihir! March 2022: Jayashree's article on 'Computers in Organic Chemistry' has been accepted in the Resonance: Journal of Science Education. February 2022: Debabrata joins the group as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome, Debabrata! November 2021: Pranav joins an astrophysical group for his UG thesis project. Farewell and good luck, Pranav! October 2021: Shivalika, a second year UG at IIT Kanpur joins the group. Welcome, Shivalika! June 2021: Shivani Sharma, Rishik Perugu and Saloni Chaurasiya join the group. Welcome All! March 2021: Jayashree's paper on "Cross-Talk between overlap interactions in biomolecules: A case study of the beta-turn motif" is accepted in Molecules. February 2021: Jayashree's paper in collaboration with Prof. Govardhan Reddy (SSCU, IISc) on "Double domain swapping in HgD and HgC crystallins drives early stages of aggregation" is accepted in J. Phys. Chem. B. Tanmai Reddy, a first year UG, joins the group as a student intern. Welcome Tanmai! January 2021: Aravind leaves for Rutger's university for his Master's degree. Farewell, Aravind! December 2020: Jayashree's paper in collaboration with Prof. Anand Srivastava (MBU, IISc) on "High resolution ensemble description of metamorphic and intrinsically disordered proteins using an efficient hybrid parallel tempering scheme" is accepted in Nat. Comm. September 2020: Shivnag joins Yale University for a Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics, farewell Shivnag! Pranav Kasetty join the group, welcome Pranav! August 2020: Ankita secures an assistant professor position at Government degree college, Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. Congratulations and farewell, Ankita. Mihir Jain and Nandan Haria Dittam join the group, welcome Mihir and Nandan! Jayashree's paper in collaboration with Prof. Jayanta Chatterjee (MBU, IISc) on "Increasing protein stability by engineering the n-pi* interactions at the beta-turn" gets accepted in Chemical Science journal. Divij also leaves the group to start his UG thesis project at the Raman Research Institute. Farewell, Divij! April 2020: Shivnag accepts graduate school admission into Yale. Congratulations, Shivnag! Aravind gets a partially funded admit to the Master's program at Rutger's university, and will be defering his joining date to 2021. Congratulations, Aravind! January 2020: Ankita joins the group as a research associate. Welcome, Ankita! Sushant decides to go back to Assam for official reasons, and will be leaving the group. Farewell, Sushant. November 2019: Sushant joins the group as a research associate. Welcome, Sushant! Jayashree’s paper in collaboration with Dr. Pralay Santra (CeNS, Bengaluru) on Quantum Dot sensing of heavy metal ions is accepted in ChemistrySelect journal. October 2019: Divij joins the group. Welcome, Divij! September 2019: Aravind joins the group. Welcome, Aravind! Aug 2019: Shilpa joins the group as a research associate. Welcome, Shilpa! Feb 2019: Shivnag is selected for the Visiting Students’ Research Programme at TIFR to do a summer internship at TIFR, Mumbai in high energy physics. Congrats, Shivnag! August 2018: Shivnag Sista joins the group. Welcome, Shivnag! June 2018: Start of Ramanujan Faculty fellowship at SSCU, IISc