Excited electronic states are important in many biological contexts. Electronic energy transfer is highly optimized in light harvesting proteins, while ultrafast nonradiative decay is responsible for the remarkable photostability of the DNA bases. In other biomolecules, excited electronic states may not occur naturally, but are of paramount interest as spectroscopic probes that report on dynamical motions over a wide range of time scales. This symposium will highlight new frontiers in excited states of biological and biomimetic molecules. Model peptides and isolated DNA bases are increasingly studied in molecular beams, where the unperturbed excited states can be observed. On the other hand, time-resolved and steady-state spectroscopic techniques are used to study the photophysical properties of biomolecules in condensed-phase environments. Here, experiments on large systems reveal how supramolecular architecture modifies the photophysical pathways of single chromophores. Theoretical studies provide a natural bridge: quantum chemical calculations can now be performed at high levels of theory for single chromophores, while promising new methods are emerging for excitations in multichromophoric macromolecules. Sessions with invited and contributed talks are planned on photoactive proteins, natural and biomimetic light harvesting, DNA photophysics, and theoretical advances.

Symposium Format

The symposium features 30 invited talks and a number of contributed talks that will be selected from abstracts submitted through the Pacifichem Web Site: http://www.pacifichem.org/. Poster presentations are also encouraged. Abstracts can be submitted any time between January 17 and April 13, 2005. Contributors will be informed of the status (oral or poster presentation) of their submission by May 30, 2005. Further information is available at the symposium web site: http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/~kohler/pacifichem/.

The Organizers

Bern Kohler, Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.
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Sheng-Hsien Lin, Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
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Albert Stolow, Femtosecond Science, Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Keitaro Yoshihara, Toyota Chemical and Physical Research Institute, Nagakute, Aichi 480-1192, Japan
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