Quantum biology is an emerging field of study that aims at answering questions related to the effects of subatomic phenomena on biology. If you ever wondered how atomic vibration affects smell or how photosynthesis efficiency might be affected by the quantum nature of light then this is the talk for you. In this talk evidence for and against pursuing this field of study will be examined.

About the Speaker:
Richard Cogdell holds the Hooker Chair of Botany and is also the Director of Glasgow Biomedical Research Centre. He joined the Botany Department in 1975 and became Head of the Department in 1987. He was a Titular Professor of Botany from 1988 before being appointed to the Hooker Chair in 1993.
Since the early 1970’s he has been involved in research on bacterial photosynthesis. His work has increasingly focused on the early events of photosynthesis-light harvesting and energy transfer-and the structure and function of the pigment-protein complexes involved in these processes. Along with his colleague Neil Isaacs, he has conducted seminal research into the structure and function of bacterial reaction centres and light-harvesting complexes. He is now concentrating on using the information gained from his structural and functional studies on the purple bacterial pigment-protein complexes to devise ways of using solar energy to produce fuels.
He has received a number of awards and honours. In 1991 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He received the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize in 1996 and the following year he was awarded the guest Lecturership of the Max Planck Institute for Radiation Chemistry at Meulheim on the Ruhr. In 2002 he received the Diawa/Adrian Prize for Anglo-Japanese Research. He was elected FRS in 2007 and FRSA in 2008.

This is event is free to attend, although we will be asking for donations at the end of the talk. Participants are under no obligation whatsoever to donate, however please rest assured that the money we collect doesn’t end up in anyone’s pocket – it is used to fund our overhead costs, and travel/accommodation for our speakers who come from further afield.

Accessibility: As per the policy of the Admiral Bar, access to the venue “can only be provided to patrons who are sufficiently mobile and capable of independently evacuating premises, or with the minimum of assistance”. Unfortunately, this leaves the basement inaccessible to most wheelchair users.