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Professor Lakshmi’s research at the Baruch ’60 Center focuses on adapting and enhancing photosynthesis for food security in the context of climate restoration. These efforts are aimed at understanding and improving light-driven electron transport and photosynthetic productivity under changing environmental conditions. A key component is developing and applying quantum-enhanced algorithms for global optimization, to screen and dock large libraries of molecules with well-characterized chemical and physical properties (in collaboration with Victor Batista at Yale). These computational approaches combine the formal rigor of variational quantum computation with the practical efficiency required to navigate realistic landscapes. The objective is to identify compounds that closely replicate the binding interactions and inhibitory activity of widely used herbicides, while substantially reducing their toxicity. This work aims to accelerate the discovery of the next generation of safe, effective, and environmentally sustainable herbicides. Beyond addressing a critical challenge in environmental sustainability and human health, the development and optimization of these novel quantum computing methodologies have the potential for broad applications across chemistry, biology, and medicine. This interdisciplinary project involves the students Alex Chenevert, Summer Henson, Patrick Landry, and Caitlyn Mutchler, together with postdoctoral associate Brandon Russell.
