Photosynthetic Water Splitting Provides a Blueprint for Artificial Leaf Technology

Abstract

James Barber is Emeritus Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry, Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College London, and the Cannon Visiting Professor to Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), Member of European Academy, and Foreign Member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. He has Honorary Doctorates of Stockholm University, University of East Anglia, and NTU. He has been awarded several medals and prizes including Flintoff Medal of RSC, Novartis Medal (UK Biochemical Society), Wheland Medal (University of Chicago), Eni-Ital gas/ENI Prize, Interdisciplinary Prize Medal of the RSC, Porter Medal of the International Photochemical Societies (Europe, USA, and Asia), and the Communication Award of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research. In 2009 he was the Lee Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitor to Singapore. Much of his research has focused on PSII and the water-splitting process that it catalyzes, and its crystal structure obtained in 2004. He is now investigating inorganic systems to mimic PSII in order to develop technology for non-polluting solar fuels.