Vladimir A. Shuvalov,
Full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Doctor of Sciences in Biology, one of the leading experts in the field of the primary processes of photosynthesis.
Graduated from
Lomonosov
Moscow
State
University, Department of Biology and Soil Science in 1965.
Full member of the
Russian
Academy of Sciences (1997), Member of the Presidium of the
Russian
Academy of Sciences (2001-2007). Director of the
Institute of
BasicBiological Problems of
Russian
Academy of Sciences (IBBP RAS) since 1996. Head of the Laboratory of primary processes of photosynthesis of IBBP RAS, Head of the Department of A.N. Belozersky Scientific Research Institute of Physical-Chmical Biology (Moscow State University), Organizer-Director and Head of the Department, Pushchino Branch of Moscow State University (1997-2013). Member of the Presidium of Pushchino Research Center, Co-President of the Russian Society for Photobiology (1996-2011), Member of the Editorial Boards of Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (until 2008), Photosynthesis Research, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Biophysics (Moscow) and Biochemistry (Moscow).
Vladimir Shuvalov is an active disciple of the Russian scientific school founded by Academicians A.N. Terenin and A.A. Krasnovsky. Prof. Shuvalov is at the head of the leading Russian school in "Primary transformation of light energy in photosynthesis". The works of Vladimir Shuvalov are well known and generally recognized in the world (according to the Web of Science he is in the top three hundred most-cited scientists in
Russia).
He is Elected Member of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research (1997), Member of the
American
Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1998, Member of the
German
Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) since 2002.
USSR State Prize winner in 1991, holder of the Order of Friendship (1999) and the Order of Honour (2004).
Research performed by Vladimir Shuvalov makes a formidable contribution to the development of modern concepts of basic principles of charge transfer processes in photosynthetic reaction centers and demonstrates their generality:
o for the first time a model of pigment structural organization in reaction centers of purple photosynthetic bacteria was suggested;
o chlorophyll-type pigments (chlorophyll, pheophytin, and their bacterial analogs) were demonstrated to perform the role of the primary electron acceptors in all studied reaction centers of green plants and photosynthetic bacteria;
o energy level scheme for charge transfer in photosynthetic reaction centers was suggested.
Vladimir Shuvalov applies femtosecond spectroscopy to the studies of the primary charge separation in photosynthetic reaction centers. He is heading a group of researchers who succeeded in demonstrating that:
o primary charge transfer in bacterial reaction centers is preceded by the stage of partial charge separation within the primary electron donor, the dimer of bacteriochlorophylls;
o the primary electron acceptor in bacterial photosynthesis is a molecule of monomeric bacteriochlorophyll, which transfers an electron to the bacteriopheophytin molecule on femtosecond/picosecond time scale;
o coherent evolution of nuclear and electron subsystems participating in electron transfer process is an essential requirement for efficient transformation of solar energy into the energy of separated charges during photosynthesis;
o the primary electron acceptor in photosystem II reaction centers is chlorophyll-670 (ChlD1), which transfers an electron to the molecule of pheophytin in ca. 13 picoseconds;
o primary charge separation in photosystem I develops in a complex comprising 6 chlorophyll molecules in less than 100 femtoseconds.
The range of Vladimir Shuvalov’s interests includes also theoretical calculations of the interaction of elementary particles within atoms and molecules including chlorophyll-protein complexes
Prof. Shuvalov collaborated with: Prof. William Parson (Washington, USA), Prof. Bacon Ke (Yellow Springs, USA), Prof. Arnold J. Hoff (Leiden, Netherlands), Prof. Louis N.M. Duysens (Leiden, Netherlands), Prof. Jan Amesz (Leiden, Netherlands), Prof. Norio Murata (Okazaki, Japan), Prof. Ulrich Heber (Würzburg, Germany), Dr. Peter Gast (Leiden, Netherlands), Prof. Gernot Renger (Berlin, Germany), Prof. Hans J. Van Gorkom (Leiden, Netherlands), Prof. Rienk Van Grondelle (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Prof. Vyacheslav Klimov (Puschino, Russia), Prof. Oleg Sarkisov and Dr. Victor Nadtochenko (Moscow, Russia), Prof. Alexey Semenov (Moscow, Russia).
