Photosynthesis: Solar Energy For Life

Photosynthesis has been an important field of research for more than a century, but the present concerns about energy, environment and climate have greatly intensified interest in and research on this topic. Research has progressed rapidly in recent years, and this book is an interesting read for an audience who is concerned with various ways of harnessing solar energy. Our understanding of photosynthesis can now be said to have reached encyclopedic dimensions. There have been, in the past, many good books at various levels. Our book is expected to fulfill the needs of advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in branches of biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and bioengineering because photosynthesis is the basis of future advances in producing more food, more biomass, more fuel, and new chemicals for our expanding global human population. Further, the basics of photosynthesis are and will be used not only for the above, but in artificial photosynthesis, an important emerging field where chemists, researchers and engineers of solar energy systems will play a major role.

Dmitry Shevela obtained his BSc from the Kaluga State University, Russia. After exploring aspects of "Bicarbonate effects on photosynthetic water oxidation" at the Institute of Fundamental Biological Problems (Russia), he focused, at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (Germany), on "The role of inorganic cofactors in photosynthetic water oxidation". For this work, done under the supervision of Vyacheslav Klimov, and Johannes Messinger, he received his PhD, from the Technische Universität Berlin (Germany). During his post-doctoral research at Umeå University (Sweden), he studied photochemistry, leading to oxidation of water to oxygen, both in natural and artificial systems, and then at the University of Stavanger (Norway), he worked on the assembly of photosynthetic complexes. Currently, he is a Senior Research Engineer in the Department of Chemistry, at Umeå University; his work is focused on understanding how protein subunits and inorganic cofactors are assembled both in vitro and in vivo into functional photosynthetic complexes, as well as in revealing protection mechanisms during this process. In addition to his novel research, Shevela is well known for being a highly successful scientific graphic designer.

Lars Olof Björn did his undergraduate studies in Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Botany, at the University of Lund (Sweden) and at the University of California Berkeley (USA). He obtained his PhD on "The Effect of Light on Root Plastids" under Hans Burström. Since then, he has been doing research on several aspects of photobiology. He is author of a highly popular book "Light and Life", which was published in five languages. He has also written popular science articles in Swedish. Lars Olof has served as a Professor of Botany at the Lund University, for almost 30 years (1972 2001), and he has been on the board of Association Internationale de Photobiologie for 12 years. In addition, he has taught at the Agricultural University of Denmark and at the South China Normal University, in Guangzhou, and has also been involved in research at the Carnegie Institution of Washington (Stanford, California), at RIKEN (Wako-Shi, Japan) and at the Abisko Scientific Research Station (Abisko, Sweden). He is now Professor Emeritus of Botany at Lund University. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Govindjee, known as Mr Photosynthesis, studied Plant Physiology at Allahabad University, and Biophysics (with Chemistry and Physics) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). At UIUC, he obtained his PhD under Eugene Rabinowitch, in 1960; he then served on the faculty at the UIUC for 40 years, retiring in 1999; since then, he has been Professor Emeritus of Plant Biology, Biochemistry and Biophysics. Govindjee is the founding editor of the Series "Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration", and of the Historical Corner of "Photosynthesis Research". He is an authority on the Primary Reactions of Photosynthesis, and is known for the discovery of the unique role of bicarbonate on the electron acceptor side of Photosystem II. His love of teaching is well known as he explains photosynthesis through a drama, where the students play the roles of different molecules. He is author of a world-renowned 1969 book "Photosynthesis", and co-editor of more than a dozen books. Govindjee has received many honors and is a fellow of the American Association of Advancement of Science and of the National Academy of Sciences of India.