Songela W. Chen is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry advised by Prof. David Limmer. She holds an SB in Chemistry with a minor in Chinese from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she modeled ion mobility in solid-state polymer electrolytes. Prior to Berkeley, she worked as a Scientific Associate at D. E. Shaw Research developing better methods to predict binding free energies for computational drug discovery.
Songela’s doctoral research focuses on optimization of nonequilibrium systems with energy applications. Using stochastic thermodynamics, she has examined bounds and tradeoffs between accuracy and heat dissipation in nanoscale logic circuits subject to thermal noise. Her work suggests better ways to control these devices by adapting machine learning techniques out of equilibrium.
As a Kavli ENSI fellow, Songela will explore energetic properties of photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes. Previous research suggests that photosystem II has evolved towards a flat energy landscape to balance efficiency of light harvesting and to provide photoprotection in excess light conditions. The Fleming Group has investigated the pathways for this bidirectional energy transfer, as well as plant responses to high and low light conditions. However, more work is needed to probe the underlying mechanisms of the photosystem II supercomplex. Songela aims to employ the same optimization techniques she has used for logic circuits to understand this complex biological network.
Bio/CV:
Role: