Professor Jonathan S. Lindsey
Jonathan S. Lindsey received his B.S. Degree (with Distinction and Honors) in Chemistry from Indiana University at Bloomington in 1978, where he did undergraduate research with Dr. Frank R. N. Gurd and Dr. Lawrence K. Montgomery. He earned the Ph.D. degree from The Rockefeller University in 1983. His doctoral work with Dr. David C. Mauzerall concerned the synthesis and photochemical characterization of a model for the reaction center of photosynthetic bacteria. After a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at Rockefeller focusing on the same topic, he spent 12 years on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, became a full Professor in 1995, and moved in 1996 to North Carolina State University as Glaxo Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry.
Professor Lindsey was a recipient of the NC State Alumni Outstanding Research Award for 2000. His teaching includes undergraduate organic chemistry, and graduate courses in bioorganic chemistry, physical organic chemistry, and photochemistry. His research involves synthetic chemistry and photochemistry of compounds that constitute the “pigments of life” (heme, chlorophylls, bacteriochlorophylls, vitamin B12, etc.) and applications in artificial photosynthesis, molecular electronics, and the life sciences. His chief research accomplishments concern the development of novel, versatile, and mild synthetic methods for the synthesis of porphyrins, chlorins, and bacteriochlorins. The synthetic methods underpin diverse fundamental studies and applications of this invaluable class of compounds.
Professor Lindsey collaborates extensively, especially with the physical chemists David Bocian and Dewey Holten. The Bocian/Holten/Lindsey team has studied the excited-state dynamics of a number of artificial photosynthetic model systems; as one example, they have revealed the role of molecular orbital composition/ordering on through-bond energy transfer. In an ongoing study, the combination of synthesis, spectroscopy, and theoretical calculations is providing deep new insight into the origin of the spectral properties of chlorophyll molecules. Professor Lindsey and his coworkers have published over 250 peer-reviewed papers.