Keith Earle

Professor Keith Earle’s research is focused on the application and development of quasioptical techniques to improve the sensitivity of very high frequency (95—250GHz) electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometers for the study of fundamental processes in biological and physical-inorganic systems. Continuing this work and its application to systems of biophysical interest is of key importance to obtain insights into basic questions of structure, dynamics and biological function.
I am particularly interested in the development of experimental, analytical and numerical tools for the evaluation and improvement of novel quasioptical structures for the study of aqueous in vitro samples with future applications to in vivo samples.

Non-Kramers transition metal ions, i.e., paramagnetic ions with integer spin, or other strongly-coupled transition metal ion systems, are often exploited by nature for important biological processes. Such ions are often difficult to observe with conventional techniques, including conventional ESR techniques, however. Very high-frequency ESR offers the possibility of obtaining important insights into these systems, e.g., ferrous iron (heme and non-heme) or the tetramanganous, oxygen-evolving reaction center (photosystem II).

The analysis of magnetic resonance (NMR and ESR) spectra, particularly multi-frequency and time-domain experiments, is an important area of research as ever-more sophisticated experimental techniques are introduced. I am developing computational methods, based on path-integral techniques, to perform calculations that will supplement more traditional methods based on eigenfunction expansions.