Title at NITech

Professor (2015)

Affiliation, Institution or University

Professor, University College London (United Kingdom)

Introduction

Peter Rich is an international authority in the field of molecular bioenergetics, specialising in biological energy production by the respiratory electron transfer chains of our intracellular mitochondria. He has received the A.N. Belozersky and Keilin Medals and has served on numerous editorial and conference committees. His training came from a Ph.D. in Cambridge University, followed by a postdoctoral post in the Johnson Research Foundation in Philadelphia. On returning to Cambridge, he established the physical chemical basis for understanding of  the behaviour of respiratory and photosynthetic quinones, molecules central to most biological energy systems. Later, he succeeded Nobel Laureate Dr. Peter Mitchell as Director of his independent Glynn Research Institute, extending studies to basic mechanisms of the complex respiratory protein ‘molecular machines’. In 1997 he moved the laboratory into University College London, establishing a vibrational infrared spectroscopy facility to further investigate these same enzymes and directing part of this facility to infrared applications in medical diagnostics.