Shiun-Jr Yang earned his PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2024, after completing his MS and BS in Chemistry at National Taiwan University. During his doctoral research, he combined experimental and theoretical approaches to investigate ultrafast processes in natural light-harvesting and the design principles of photosynthetic systems.
As a former Kavli Fellow, Shiun-Jr applied Two-Dimensional Electronic-Vibrational (2DEV) spectroscopy—developed in the Fleming group—to unravel the ultrafast dynamics in the Photosystem II supercomplex (PSII-SC). This advanced spectroscopic technique offers high temporal and spectral resolution, enabling the disentanglement of complex dynamics. He also developed a kinetic model based on the state-of-the-art structure of the PSII-SC and combined it with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. These simulations provided single-trajectory analyses that revealed the functional roles of individual subunits within the PSII-SC. His research demonstrated that energy can flow away from the reaction center more rapidly than it enters, a critical step in balancing energy conversion efficiency with photoprotection.
Currently, he is a postdoctoral associate in Professor Schlau-Cohen’s group at MIT, where he continues to study the mechanisms that balance energy conversion efficiency and photoprotection in photosynthetic systems.