John H. Golbeck PhD

Dr. John Golbeck is a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and a Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from Valparaiso University and his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from Indiana University under the supervision of Prof. Anthony San Pietro. His postdoctoral studies were carried out at Martin Marietta Laboratories, Baltimore, MD, with Dr. Bessel Kok. Prof. Golbeck spent sabbatical leaves at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1984), at the Centre d’Etudes Nucl´eaires de Saclay (1992), and at the Freie Universität, Berlin (2003). He is currently a Fellow of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies in Germany (summer, 2015). His research interests involve the protein factors that confer thermodynamic properties to organic and inorganic cofactors, the structural makeup of Type I reaction centers from anaerobic bacteria, the composition of electrically conductive bacterial nanowires, and the modification of Photosystem I to produce hydrogen. Prof. Golbeck is a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Biophysical Society of America, and the International Society for Photosynthesis Research, where he holds the position of Treasurer.