Songi Han
songi@chem.ucsb.edu
PSBN 4614
International Society of Magnetic Resonance (ISMR)
Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award; Early CAREER Award, National Science Foundation; Packard Award for Science and Engineering; Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award; NIH Innovator Award; Innovation Award, Biophysical Society; Bessel Humboldt Prize, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; Award for Outstanding Achievements in Magnetic Resonance, Eastern Analytical Symposium; W.M. Keck Foundation Award, W.M. Keck Foundation; R35 Maximizing Investigator's Research Award (MIRA), National Institutes of Health
Bioengineering, Materials & Interfaces
In the Han Lab, they are developing novel techniques and innovative approaches, relying on electron and nuclear spin magnetic resonance concepts that enables one to detect structure, dynamics and interaction with unprecedented sensitivity, resolution and information content. The lab takes a two-pronged approach: (1) to develop new instrumental capabilities, methodologies and concepts, and (2) to concurrently pursue important questions in biophysics and materials science using a new combination of the just developed, as well as existing set of, technologies. An important emphasis of the development in the Han lab lies on dynamic nuclear polarization that can amplify the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal by orders of magnitudes, by transferring polarization from highly polarized electron spin probes to surrounding nuclei.
The group employs strategic spin probes at molecular or material sites of interest, and pursue ambient temperature Overhauser DNP enhanced study of hydration dynamics at 10 GHz, as well as below 20 Kelvin solid state DNP enhanced NMR spectroscopy at 200 GHz. Concurrently, they also develop cw and pulsed electron spin resonance (EPR) capabilities at 200 and 240 GHz, and arbitrary waveform-powered pulsed EPR spectroscopy at X-band for enhanced studies of molecular structure and dynamics. Questions of interest include, but are not limited to, the study of lipid membrane biophysics, functional role of hydration water dynamics, membrane protein structure-dynamics-function relationship, early stages of amyloid protein aggregation, polyelectrolyte coacervation for bioinspired materials and unraveling soft matter structure-dynamics-property relationships.
Dr. rer. nat Aachen University of Technology
Diplom Chemistry, Aachen University of Technology
Vordiplom Chemistry, University of Köln, Germany