Prof Bela Bode

Prof Bela Bode

Professor

Researcher profile

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 3869
Email
beb2@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Biography

Dr Bode gained an MChem (Dipl. Chem.) in 2004 and PhD (Dr. phil. nat.) in 2008 from the Goethe University (Frankfurt, Germany) for electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) related projects under the supervision of Prof Olav Schiemann and Prof Thomas Prisner. He then moved to Leiden University (The Netherlands) as Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow and a Feodor Lynen Fellow (Alexander von Humbold Foundation) investigating optical methods in solid-state NMR spectroscopy. He joined the Faculty of the School of Chemistry in 2011 as an EaStCHEM Hirst Fellow before becoming a Lecturer and being promoted to Reader and then Professor in due course.

Teaching

Bela teaches inorganic chemistry on both sub-honours and honours level with a special focus on bioinorganic, physical inorganic chemistry and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Current contributions include lectures in CH3514 Physical Inorganic Chemistry (8 lectures 'Inorganic Spectroscopy', module convenor) and CH5517 Advanced Physical Inorganic Chemistry (10 lectures 'Paramagnetic Inorganic Molecules'). Bela also demonstrates in the CH2501 Inorganic Chemistry 2 laboratory and contributes to tutorials in CH1401, CH1402, CH2501, CH3512, and CH3514.

Research areas

The group's research focusses on using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to study the microscopic structure and dynamics of (bio)molecules and materials.

When investigating (bio)molecular structures we often find that the methods available have not been proven to be reliably applicable under the specific circumstances of a given research question. The group embraces the challenge of adapting and implementing EPR methodology to obtain the maximum information content. The ultimate vision is a geneneral approach to determine macromolecular complex structures from EPR data through both long-range interactions between spins and their interactions with their surrounding probing the local chemical environment.

In a nutshell, EPR detects the magnetism arising from the “spin”, a quantum mechanical property of unpaired electrons. Although electrons are contained in all matter, they are commonly paired, quenching their magnetism. However, some molecules and materials, such as radicals and paramagnetic metal ions, exhibit unpaired electrons. Using EPR, it is possible to study the unpaired electron and its surrounding through its magnetic spin measuring distances on the nanometre (one billionth of a metre) scale. Over the past 15 years, these distance measurements have developed into an important and powerful method for investigating the nanoworld of large (bio)molecules.

http://chemistry.st-andrews.ac.uk/staff/beb/group/index.php

PhD supervision

  • Aisika Chakraborty
  • Yannik Limbach
  • Eleonora Tardo
  • Yichen Wei
  • Rajni Bala 

Selected publications

 

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