Asmit Bhowmick, a research scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division is one of four Berkeley Lab scientists who received Early Career Research Program (ECRP) awards from the Department of Energy (DOE) this year. Established in 2010, the ECRP program supports exceptional researchers at the outset of their careers, when many scientists do their most formative work. Awards to a DOE national laboratory or Office of Science user facility will be approximately $2,750,000 over five years. Recipients use the funding to pursue projects that have the potential to solve scientific challenges and advance the country’s STEM capabilities.
Bhowmick’s project, “Predictive Modeling of Water and Hydrogen-Bond Networks in Energy Conversion,” will investigate the structural and dynamical features of water and hydrogen-bond networks in biological systems, which are essential for critical energy conversion processes like natural photosynthesis. Despite water’s vital role in sustaining life, scientists currently have a limited ability to predict how these networks behave at the interface, and under different environmental conditions such as higher or lower pH. The project aims to solve this challenge, overcoming a major hurdle that limits the engineering of complex, multifunctional biological devices.
To map these complex interactions, Bhowmick plans to combine advanced room-temperature structural biology techniques—including time-resolved X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) methods—with machine learning and theoretical modeling. By tracking the precise positions and movements of individual water molecules in model peptide systems and photosynthetic proteins, the project will generate experimental data to train predictive machine learning models and improve theoretical simulations. Ultimately, Bhowmick hopes to establish a transferable set of design principles capable of accurately predicting water networks in both bioenergetic systems and synthetic materials, such as membranes.
Learn more about Bhowmick’s project in this Q&A.