Elias Greenbaum

Keywords:

Photosynthesis, renewable hydrogen production, nanoscale photosynthesis, nanobiotechnology, molecular electronics, artificial sight, biomedical research

Research Area:

Description of Research:

E. Greenbaum's research is focused on microbial and nanoscale photosynthesis. Renewable hydrogen production by light-activated photosynthetic water splitting is a major activity in his lab. His laboratory was the first to demonstrate that unicellular green algae were capable of the sustained simultaneous photoevolution of hydrogen and oxygen. More recently, he and his colleagues have extracted and purified the nanometer-scale reaction centers from photosynthetic membranes. They were the first to demonstrate that the Photosystem I reaction center is a biomolecular diode and measured the light-induced photovoltage of the PS I reaction center. Greenbaum and his colleagues recently proposed a University of Tennessee Center of Excellence in Artificial Sight based on their nanoscale photosynthesis work. This center has the support of ORNL, UTK, and the UT Memphis medical school department of ophthalmology.

Contact Information

Elias Greenbaum
Structural and Nanoscale Biophysics
Staff Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

ORNL
PO Box 2008 MS6194
Oak Rdige, TN 37831-6194

Email: greenbaum@ornl.gov

Degrees