Dr Christopher Duffy

Christopher Duffy

Senior Lecturer in Cellular and Molecular Biology
Director of Admissions (SBBS)

School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
www.qmul.ac.uk/sbbs/staff/christopherduffy.html
Centre for Molecular Cell Biology
Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainability
Google Scholar

Research

Photosynthetic Light-Harvesting, Open Quantum Systems, Astrobiology, Bioenergetics

Interests

I have a background in Theoretical Physics and a deep interest in Photosynthesis and, more generally, how light and biology interact. I use a variety of theoretical and computational methods to try and understand how photosynthetic organisms harvest energy efficiently yet safely. More recently, I have become interested in the limits of possibility for photosynthesis, collaborating with astronomers and astrophysicists in the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences to try and understand if photosynthesis is possible around very different stars to our own Sun. It is interesting and fun to apply the principles of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics to understand whether photosynthesis would work around, say, a red dwarf star, how such organisms might be different from Earth's plants and algae, and whether we could detect it remotely.