| Citation | Richard Cogdell's research has investigated the structure and function of bacterial reaction centres and light-harvesting complexes. In both areas he has made seminal contributions. He was the first to show that in reaction centres ubiquinone was the primary electron acceptor, that bacteriopheophytin was the intermediate electron acceptor and how carotenoid triplet formation photoprotects. More recently his determination of the crystal structure of the LH2 antenna complex has completely changed ideas of the mechanisms photosynthetic energy transfer, and induced many physicists and chemists to study this complex. This new structure of the RC-LH1 'core' complex is likely to be just as influential. |