Spiridoula Matsika

Spiridoula Matsika

  • College of Science and Technology

    Department of Chemistry

    Professor

    Concentrations
    • Theory/Computational
Office Location

Beury Hall 242

Direct

215-204-7703

Department

215-204-7118

Research website          Google Scholar

Interests

​Most chemical processes follow the Born-Oppenheimer (adiabatic) approximation, in which the nuclei move on a single potential energy surface. However there are important processes where this approximation breaks down. These nonadiabatic events play an important role in essential processes in nature such as photosynthesis, vision, charge transfer and photochemistry. The focus of our group is to develop and apply theoretical methods to study nonadiabatic phenomena and their potential implications.  Focus areas are: Photophysics and photochemistry of biologically relevant systems, such as DNA/RNA; Theoretical description of conical intersections and excited states; Understanding laser control of molecular dynamics.

Biography

2000-2003             Postdoctoral researcher, Johns Hopkins University

2000                         Ph.D. The Ohio State University

1994                         B.S. University of Athens, Greece       

Selected Awards

Dean's Distinguished Award for Excellence in Research. Fellow of the American Physical Society. Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. Lowdin Lecturer. NSF CAREER Award.  Presidential Fellowship, The Ohio State University.