Assistant Professor Minjung Son Receives David R. Dalton Career Development Professorship
The Department of Chemistry’s new Assistant Professor Minjung Son was recently awarded the David R. Dalton Career Development Professorship, established by BU trustee Nathaniel Dalton (LAW’91) and Amy Gotlieb Dalton (LAW’91).
Son works across multiple scientific disciplines, at the interface of chemistry, physics, optics, and materials science. Her research focuses on controlling and investigating energy transfer in photosynthesis systems. “I use materials science tools to make samples. I also shoot lasers onto those samples, which is more like physics than chemistry,” Son says. “Working across disciplines is all about broadening your skill set in a collaborative way. Talking to and working alongside people who have different backgrounds helps you learn new skills and tackle challenges in new ways.”
Her research focuses on the fundamental physical processes that govern how biological systems function. “If you think about trying to build an efficient device that can capture sunlight and convert the energy into different forms,” Son says, “it starts by thinking about the fundamental physical processes that get fed down to the machinery.”
Plants, she notes, “are really good at transporting absorbed sunlight with nearly 100 percent efficiency.” Son is working on answering some important questions about energy and climate change: “What if we could wire the pathways of plants in a specific way to actually control the efficiency of photosynthesis,” she says, “which would impact crop yield and biofuel yield, which could help save our planet?” That same know-how could also apply to improving the efficiency of solar panels, she adds.
Son earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, and a PhD from MIT.
Click here to read the full BU Today article and learn about all five career award recipients.