Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle

Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle (born 20 August 1935 in Kiel, Germany) is a German chemist. From 1974 to 2000, she was a professor of Physical Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. Among other awards, she has received the 2000 Bavarian Order of Merit (Bayerischer Verdienstorden), the highest service order bestowed by the Free State of Bavaria, for her work on photosynthesis.

Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle
Born (1935-08-20) 20 August 1935
Kiel, Germany
NationalityGerman
Alma materUniversity of Göttingen, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Technical University of Aachen
Known forPhotosynthesis
AwardsBavarian Order of Merit
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, Chemistry, Biophysics
InstitutionsTechnical University of Munich
Websiteportal.mytum.de/forschung/eoe/profile/michel-beyerle/index_html

Early life

On 20 August 1935 Michel-Beyerle was born in Kiel, Germany. Michel-Beyerle's father was Konrad Beyerle, an engineer.

Education and career

Michel-Beyerle studied chemistry at the University of Göttingen. From 1957–1959 she studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. From 1960–1962 she was a graduate assistant at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the Technical University of Aachen.[1] In 1964 she completed her doctoral thesis, Zur Elektrochemie des Indiums, on the electrochemistry of indium.[2]

From 1965–1974 Michel-Beyerle worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, working with Heinz Gerischer.[2][3] In 1974 she achieved her Habilitation, qualifying as a professor and being appointed to the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. In 1980, she was recognized as a Professor extraordinarius. Michel-Beyerle became a Professor emeritus in 2000.[2]

She has been the founder and spokesperson for two Collaborative Research Centres, one for “Elementary processes of photosynthesis” (1981–1996) and one for “Photoionisation and charge transfer in large molecules, clusters and in the condensation phase“ (1994–2000).[1] From 2003–2007, she has been the project coordinator of the EU research program for "Control of assembly and charge transport dynamics of immobilized DNA" (CIDNA).[2][4]

In 2008 she became a Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University in the city state of Singapore.[1] In 2009, she became the founding director of BioFemtoLab, a research unit at Nanyang Technological University.[5][6]

Research

Michel-Beyerle's area of research is physical chemistry. She is known for her work on electron transfer dynamics in biological systems, including the influence of magnetic fields on chemical reactions such as the spin dynamics of radicals, and the use of MARY-spectroscopy (Magnetic Field Effect on Reaction Yield)[7] to study structural and dynamic properties of the reaction centre.[8][9] She has examined the structure of the photosynthetic reaction center in bacteria.[10][11] Her work with Johann Deisenhofer and Hartmut Michel informed their understanding of unidirectional electron transfer, contributing to their winning of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for determining the three-dimensional structure of the photosynthetic reaction center.[12][13] She is particularly interested in disorder phenomena and the control of disorder-order transitions.[14] She was the first to identify very rapid transmembrane electron transfers and examine their energetics.[1][3] As early as 1968 she studied the ability of illuminated organic dyes to generate electricity in electrochemical cells, and has continued to work on the development of dye-sensitized solar cells.[6][15] Her studies of the structure-based dynamics of DNA and proteins include the green fluorescent protein (GFP) of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria.[6][16]

Honors and awards

See also

References
  1. "Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle (English)". Technische Universität München. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  2. "Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle (German)". Technische Universität München. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  3. "Prof. Dr. Maria-Elisabeth MICHEL-BEYERLE". TUM Create. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  4. "Home". Control of assembly and charge transport dynamics of immobilized DNA. Archived from the original on 2016-01-11. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  5. "Regional Focus – APA Singapore" (PDF). Newsletter April 2012. The Asian and Oceanian Photochemistry Association. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  6. "Prof Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle". Nanyang Technological University. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  7. Atherton, N. M.; Davies, M.J.; Gilbert, B.C. (1998). Electron Paramagnetic Resonance: A review of the recent literature to 1997. Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 259. ISBN 978-0-85404-305-7. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  8. Bube, W.; Haberkorn, R.; Michel-Beyerle, M. E. (September 1978). "Magnetic field and isotope effects induced by hyperfine interaction in a steady state photochemical experiment". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 100 (19): 5993–5995. doi:10.1021/ja00487a002.
  9. Lersch, W.; Michel-Beyerle, M.E. (July 1983). "Magnetic field effects on the recombination of radical ions in reaction centers of photosynthetic bacteria". Chemical Physics. 78 (1): 115–126. Bibcode:1983CP.....78..115L. doi:10.1016/0301-0104(83)87012-8.
  10. Michel-Beyerle, Maria-Elisabeth, ed. (2012). The Reaction center of photosynthetic bacteria : structure and dynamics. [S.l.]: Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-3-642-64723-9.
  11. Govindjee, J. Thomas Beatty; Gest, H.; Allen, J.F. (2005). Discoveries in Photosynthesis. Netherlands: Springer. p. 219. ISBN 978-1-4020-3323-0. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  12. Deisenhofer, J.; Michel, H. (December 8, 1988). "Nobel lecture. The photosynthetic reaction centre from the purple bacterium Rhodopseudomonas viridis" (PDF). Nobel Prize.org.
  13. Michel-Beyerle, M. E.; Plato, M.; Deisenhofer, J.; Michel, H.; Bixon, M.; Jortner, J. (January 20, 1988). "Unidirectionality of charge separation in reaction centers of photosynthetic bacteria". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics. 932 (1): 52–70. doi:10.1016/0005-2728(88)90139-9.
  14. "MICHEL- BEYERLE, Maria-Elisabeth Professor". Nanyang Technological University. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  15. Gerischer,H.; Michel-Beyerle,M.; Rebentrost, E.; Tributsch, H. (1968). "Sensitization of Charge-Injection into Semiconductors with Large Band Gap". Electrochimica Acta. 13 (6): 1509–1515. doi:10.1016/0013-4686(68)80076-3.
  16. Jung, Gregor; Wiehler, Jens; Zumbusch, Andreas (March 2005). "The Photophysics of Green Fluorescent Protein: Influence of the Key Amino Acids at Positions 65, 203, and 222". Biophysical Journal. 88 (3): 1932–1947. Bibcode:2005BpJ....88.1932J. doi:10.1529/biophysj.104.044412. PMC 1305246. PMID 15613627.
  17. "Search for Maria-Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle". Bayerischer Verdienstorden. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  18. Heinrichsen, Dieter (January 20, 2006). "Höchste Auszeichnung für TU-Chemikerin: Maria Elisabeth Michel-Beyerle erhält Maximiliansorden". IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft.
  19. "Bayerische Verfassungsmedaille". MEMIM Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
  20. "Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Medaille". Technische Universität München. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
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