Lisa M. Utschig preview image

Lisa M. Utschig

Senior Chemist

Dr. Lisa Utschig is a Senior Chemist at the U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

Biography

Lisa Utschig is a Senior Chemist with the Solar Energy Conversion Group and Lead Principal Investigator - Natural Photosynthesis.

Education

  • BA, Cornell College
  • PhD, Northwestern University
  • Enrico Fermi Scholar, Argonne National Laboratory

Recent Honors and Awards

  • Fellow, AAAS (2023)
  • Summer SOTM  AWIS-Chicago (2022)
  • University of Chicago Argonne, LLC Board of Governor’s Distinguished Performance Award (2020)
  • Women at the Forefront of Energy Research, ACS Energy Letters (2020)
  • Speaker, Presidential Symposium, 248th ACS National Meeting (2014)

Primary Research Interests

  • Investigation of photochemical energy conversion in natural photosynthetic systems
  • Development of innovative bioinorganic approaches to modify photosynthetic proteins for solar fuel production
  • Creation of novel biohybrid complexes for elucidating fundamental mechanisms of photosynthetic charge accumulation and  photocatalysis

Select Recent Publications

  1. “Structural characterizaion of the platinum nanoparticle hydrogen-evolving catalyst assembled on photosystem I by light-driven chemistry.” ACS Nano, 2025, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c08563.
  2. “Light-induced electron spin qubit coherences in the purple bacteria reaction center protein.” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2025, DOI: 10.1039/d4cp03971h.
  3. “Structure of a biohybrid photosystem I-platinum nanoparticle solar fuel catalyst” Nature Communications, 2024, DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-53476-y.
  4. “Electrochemical cofactor recycling of bacterial microcompartments” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 2024, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2414220121.
  5. “Photosynthetic biohybrid systems for solar fuels catalysis” Chem. Commun. Feature Article, 2024.  DOI: 10.1039/d4cc00774c.
  6. “In vitro encapsulation of functionally active abiotic photosensitizers inside a bacterial microcompartment shell” J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2024.  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c01103.
  7. “Light-induced charge separation in Photosystem I from different biological species characterized by multifrequency electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy” Int. J. Mol. Sci., 2024. DOI: 10.3390/ijms25158188
  8. “EPR studies of ferredoxin in spinach and cyanobacterial thylakoids related to photosystem I-driven NADP+ reduction” Special Issue: ​“Energy conversion reactions in natural and artificial photosynthesis” Photosynthesis Research, 2024.  DOI:10.1007/s11120-023-01072-4
  9. “Coherences of photoinduced electron spin qubit pair states in Photosystem I” J. Phys. Chem. B, 2023. DOI:10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c06658
  10.  ​“Solar water splitting Pt-nanoparticle photosystem I thylakoid systems:  Catalyst identification, location and oligomeric structure”  Special Issue: ​“Applied Photosynthesis:  Putting the Green into Green Energy” BBA Bioenergetics, 2023. DOI:10.1016/j.bbabio.2023.148974
  11. “Biohybrid photosynthetic charge accumulation detected by flavin semiquinone formation in ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase”  Chemical Science, 2022.  DOI:10.1039/d2sc01546c
  12. “Light-harvesting biohybrids for enhanced solar-to-chemical conversion technologies” Chem, 2022.  DOI:10.1016/j.chempr.2021.12.011
  13. “Quantum sensing of electron transfer pathways in natural photosynthesis using time-resolved high-field EPR/ENDOR spectroscopy” J. Phys. Chem. B, 2021.  DOI:  10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c00946
  14. “Preface to the special issue:  photosynthesis-inspired biohybrid and biomimetic systems”  Photosynthesis Research, 2020.  DOI: 10.1007/s11120-019-00703-z
  15. “Women at the forefront of energy research:  A virtual issue” ACS Energy Letters, 2020. DOI:  10.1021/acsenergylett.9b02695
  16. “Interprotein electron transfer biohybrid system for photocatalytic H2 production” Photosynthesis Research, 2020.  DOI: 10.1007/s11120-019-00705-x
  17.  ​“Spin-correlated radical pairs as quantum sensors of bidirectional ET mechanisms in Photosystem I”  J. Phys. Chem. B, 2019. DOI: 10.1021/acs/jpcb.9b06636
  18.  ​“Z-scheme solar water splitting via self-assembly of photosystem I-catalyst hybrids in thylakoid membranes”  Chemical Science, 2018. DOI:10.1039/c8sc02841a
  19. “Charge separation related to photocatalytic H2 production from a Ru-apoflavodoxin-Ni biohybrid”  ACS Energy Letters, 2017. DOI:10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00614
  20. “Ru-protein-Co biohybrids designed for solar hydrogen production:  understanding electron transfer pathways related to photocatalytic function”  Chemical Science, 2016, 7, 7068-7078. 
  21. “Modular homogeneous chromophore-catalyst assemblies”  Acc. Chem. Res. 2016, 49(5), 835-843.
  22. “Light-driven hydrogen production from Photosystem I-catalyst hybrids” Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 2015, 25, 1-8.