Alison Rodger

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Professor
Alison Rodger
FRSC FRACI FAA
2019-09-06 Joanne Stephan-119 (2).jpg
Alma mater University of Sydney
Moore Theological College
University of Oxford
University of Chester
Known forBiomacromolecules
Scientific career
Institutions Australian National University
Macquarie University
University of Warwick
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge

Alison Rodger (born November 21, 1959) is a Scottish-Australian chemist who is a professor of chemistry at the Australian National University. [1] Her research considers biomacromolecular structures and their characterisation. She is currently developing fluorescence detected liner dichroism, Raman Linear Difference Spectroscopy and attenuated total reflectance Vibrational linear dichroism to understand biomacromolecular structure and interactions with application to the division of bacterial cells.

Contents

Early life and education

Rodger was born in Edinburgh to John and Margaret McDougall. [2] She earned her bachelor's, PhD and DSc from University of Sydney. [3] She was awarded the University of Sydney University Medal for theoretical chemistry. Whilst a student, Roger developed Classical Selection Rule (CSR), a procedure that can be used to analyse reaction mechanisms. [4] [5] In 1985 she completed a diploma in Biblical Studies at Moore Theological College. She gained a master's degree at the University of Oxford in 1988. She moved to the University of Warwick for a second DSc, and earned a bachelor's degree in theology at the University of Chester. [6] Rodger was appointed a Beatrice Dale Fellowship at Newnham College, Cambridge from 1985 to 1988. [6]

Research and career

In 1985 Rodger joined Newnham College Cambridge as a Beatrice Dale Research fellow. 1988 Rodger she moved to the University of Oxford as a Unilever Fellow in St Catherine's College. She moved to St Hilda's College in 1991.[ citation needed ] She developed the UK's first Couette flow linear dichroism facilities. [7] [8] In 1994 Rodger joined the University of Warwick as a Lecturer. She was made a Senior Lecturer in 1998, a Reader in 2003 and a Professor in 2005. Rodger was Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick from 2014 to 2016. [6] She was the only woman academic in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory at Oxford and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick for over 11 years. [9] She has been involved with several initiatives to improve gender balance in academic chemistry, including Athena SWAN and a European partnership, PLOTINA (Promoting Gender Balance and Inclusion in Research, Innovation and Training). [10] [11] [12] [13] PLOTINA looked to drive cultural change by developing diverse, inclusive work environments. [10] Under Rodger's leadership, Warwick was the fourth institution to achieve silver Athena SWAN status. [11] She was the founder and Director of the Doctoral Training Centre in Molecular Organisation and Assembly in Cells. [14] [15] The Doctoral Training Centre was one of the first EPSRC-funded DTCs. [15] She developed a postgraduate certificate in transferable skills to support early career researchers. [6] She moved to Macquarie University in 2017, where she established an open-access biophysical spectroscopy facility for collaborators. [16] In 2024, she joined the Australian National University. [1] as Director of the Research School of Chemistry.

Rodger is interested in how the structure and arrangement of biomolecules impact their function. [17] She developed the technology for UV- Linear Dichroism spectroscopy. [17] Her lab became the national and international hub of Couette flow Linear Dichroism, allowing scientists to obtain structural and kinetic information about several systems. [18] She demonstrated that it is possible to orient membrane systems of liposomes. [18] Rodgers developed Raman Linear Difference Spectroscopy to study the division of bacterial cells. [17] She designed a new instrument that could measure Raman optical activity and Raman Linear Difference Spectroscopy in an effort to probe the secondary and tertiary structures of biomacromolecules. [17] [19] Her research in the UK was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. [20] Rodger serves on the advisory board of the Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank. [21] In 2015 she was named on the Analytical Science Power List. She joined the council at St John's College, Nottingham in 2015. [2] Rodger completed a bachelor's degree in Theology at St John's College whilst working as a Professor of Biophysical Chemistry. [22] She serves on the Australian Research Council Science and Technology Advisory Panel. [23] [24]

Alongside investigating circular dichroism of biomacromolecules, Rodger has studied molecular electronic systems. [25] [26] She co-led the UK Circular and Linear Dichroism Summer School for over 10 years. [27] She was a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry Council until she left the UK in 2017. She was very involved in Athena SWAN in the UK and was part of the Athena SWAN expansion in Australia, SAGE. [28] She is a member of Barker College Council and an Honorary Member of the British Biophysical Society.

In 2021 she received the accolade of election as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. [29]

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dichroism</span> Phenomenon where the material is splitting two or more beams of different colours

In optics, a dichroic material is either one which causes visible light to be split up into distinct beams of different wavelengths (colours), or one in which light rays having different polarizations are absorbed by different amounts.

Circular dichroism (CD) is dichroism involving circularly polarized light, i.e., the differential absorption of left- and right-handed light. Left-hand circular (LHC) and right-hand circular (RHC) polarized light represent two possible spin angular momentum states for a photon, and so circular dichroism is also referred to as dichroism for spin angular momentum. This phenomenon was discovered by Jean-Baptiste Biot, Augustin Fresnel, and Aimé Cotton in the first half of the 19th century. Circular dichroism and circular birefringence are manifestations of optical activity. It is exhibited in the absorption bands of optically active chiral molecules. CD spectroscopy has a wide range of applications in many different fields. Most notably, UV CD is used to investigate the secondary structure of proteins. UV/Vis CD is used to investigate charge-transfer transitions. Near-infrared CD is used to investigate geometric and electronic structure by probing metal d→d transitions. Vibrational circular dichroism, which uses light from the infrared energy region, is used for structural studies of small organic molecules, and most recently proteins and DNA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raman optical activity</span>

Raman optical activity (ROA) is a vibrational spectroscopic technique that is reliant on the difference in intensity of Raman scattered right and left circularly polarised light due to molecular chirality.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molecular biophysics</span> Interdisciplinary research area

Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in terms of molecular structure, structural organization, and dynamic behaviour at various levels of complexity. This discipline covers topics such as the measurement of molecular forces, molecular associations, allosteric interactions, Brownian motion, and cable theory. Additional areas of study can be found on Outline of Biophysics. The discipline has required development of specialized equipment and procedures capable of imaging and manipulating minute living structures, as well as novel experimental approaches.

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) is a spectroscopic technique which detects differences in attenuation of left and right circularly polarized light passing through a sample. It is the extension of circular dichroism spectroscopy into the infrared and near infrared ranges.

Linear dichroism (LD) or diattenuation is the difference between absorption of light polarized parallel and polarized perpendicular to an orientation axis. It is the property of a material whose transmittance depends on the orientation of linearly polarized light incident upon it. As a technique, it is primarily used to study the functionality and structure of molecules. LD measurements are based on the interaction between matter and light and thus are a form of electromagnetic spectroscopy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurence D. Barron</span> British chemist

Laurence David Barron has been Gardiner Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow since 1998. He is a chemist who has conducted pioneering research into the properties of chiral molecules — defined by Lord Kelvin as those that cannot be superimposed onto their mirror image. By extending this definition of chirality to include moving particles and processes that vary with time, he has made a fundamental theoretical contribution to the field. Chiral molecules such as amino acids, sugars, proteins, and nucleic acids play a central role in the chemistry of life, and many drug molecules are chiral. Laurence's work on Raman optical activity — a spectroscopic technique capable of determining the three-dimensional structures of chiral molecules, which he predicted, observed, and applied to problems at the forefront of chemistry and structural biology — has led to its development as a powerful analytical tool used in academic and industrial laboratories worldwide. His much-cited book, Molecular Light Scattering and Optical Activity, has contributed to the growing impact of chirality on many areas of modern science.

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Athena SWAN is an equality charter mark framework and accreditation scheme established and managed by the UK Equality Challenge Unit in 2005 that recognises and celebrates good practices in higher education and research institutions towards the advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success.

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Nina D. Berova is a Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. She is recognised as a world leader in stereochemistry and chiroptical spectroscopy. Her contributions include the development of porphyrin tweezers. She was the 2007 winner of the Società Chimica Italiana Chirality Medal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyper–Rayleigh scattering</span> Optical phenomenon

Hyper–Rayleigh scattering optical activity, a form of chiroptical harmonic scattering, is a nonlinear optical physical effect whereby chiral scatterers convert light to higher frequencies via harmonic generation processes, in a way that the intensity of generated light depends on the chirality of the scatterers. "Hyper–Rayleigh scattering" is a nonlinear optical counterpart to Rayleigh scattering. "Optical activity" refers to any changes in light properties that are due to chirality.

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Synchrotron radiation circular dichroism spectroscopy, commonly referred to as SRCD and also known as VUV-circular dichroism or VUVCD spectroscopy, is a powerful extension to the technique of circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, often used to study structural properties of biological molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. The physical principles of SRCD are essentially identical to those of CD, in that the technique measures the difference in absorption (ΔA) of left (AL) and right (AR) circularly polarized light (ΔA=AL-AR) by a sample in solution. To obtain a CD(SRCD) spectrum the sample must be innately optically active (chiral), or, in some way be induced to have chiral properties, as only then will there be an observable difference in absorption of the left and right circularly polarized light. The major advantages of SRCD over CD arise from the ability to measure data over an extended wavelength range into the vacuum ultra violet (VUV) end of the spectrum. As these measurements are utilizing a light source with a higher photon flux than a bench-top CD machine it means data are more accurate at these extended wavelengths because there is a larger signal over the background noise and, generally, less sample is needed when recording the spectra and there is more information content available in the data. Many beamlines now exist around the world to enable the measurement of SRCD data.

References

  1. 1 2 "Prof. Alison Rodger". ANU Chemistry. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Alison Rodger". stjohns-nottm.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  3. ↑ "Linear Dichroism and Circular Dichroism av Alison Rodger, Tim Dafforn, Bengt Norden (Bok)". Bokus.com (in Swedish). Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  4. ↑ Rodger, Alison; Schipper, Pieter E. (1 February 1988). "Symmetry selection rules for reaction mechanisms: application to metal-ligand isomerizations". Inorganic Chemistry. 27 (3): 458–466. doi:10.1021/ic00276a006. ISSN   0020-1669.
  5. ↑ E, Schipper Pieter (22 April 1994). Symmetry And Topology In Chemical Reactivity. World Scientific. ISBN   9789814502696.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Alison Rodger". warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  7. 1 2 Rodger, Alison; Rodger, University Lecturer Department of Chemistry Alison; Norden, Bengt; Nordén, Bengt; Norden, Professor of Physical Chemistry Department of Physical Chemistry Bengt (1997). Circular Dichroism and Linear Dichroism. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780198558972.
  8. ↑ Marrington, R.; Dafforn, T. R.; Halsall, D. J.; Rodger, A. (September 2004). "Micro-Volume Couette Flow Sample Orientation for Absorbance and Fluorescence Linear Dichroism". Biophysical Journal. 87 (3): 2002–2012. Bibcode:2004BpJ....87.2002M. doi:10.1529/biophysj.103.035022. PMC   1304603 . PMID   15345576.
  9. ↑ "Athena SWAN at Warwick especially in Chemistry where we are going why we bother. - ppt download". slideplayer.com. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  10. 1 2 "Warwick becomes founding member of new international partnership focused on women's research careers". warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  11. 1 2 "Warwick Achieves Silver Athena SWAN status". warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  12. ↑ "Human Resources: Athena SWAN Event - Women, Science, Success". www.bbk.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  13. ↑ "Athena SWAN Good Practice Workshop | Chemistry | University of Southampton". www.southampton.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  14. ↑ "Human Resources: Athena SWAN Event - Women, Science, Success". www.bbk.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  15. 1 2 Beall, Abigail. "Doctorate with a difference". New Scientist. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  16. ↑ "Alison Rodger — Macquarie University". researchers.mq.edu.au. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  17. 1 2 3 4 "Details of Grant: A new Raman instrument for polarized spectroscopy of biomacromolecular systems". Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  18. 1 2 "Polarised spectroscopy to probe biomacromolecular structure and function: Alison Rodger" (PDF). Warwick. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  19. ↑ "NSW One-day Symposium on Analytical & Environmental Chemistry - Event Management - The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Incorporated". www.raci.org.au. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  20. ↑ "Portfolio Analyser". bbsrc.ukri.org. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  21. ↑ "Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank". pcddb.cryst.bbk.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  22. ↑ "Take remote control". www.churchtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  23. ↑ Council, Australian Research (30 May 2018). "EI 2018: Science and Technology Panel". www.arc.gov.au. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  24. ↑ "Australian Research Council names engagement and impact panels | Campus Morning Mail" . Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  25. ↑ "The future of electronics is chemical". phys.org. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  26. ↑ Rodger, Alison (2018), "Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy of Biomacromolecules", Encyclopedia of Biophysics, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 1–3, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-35943-9_638-1, ISBN   9783642359439
  27. ↑ "Circular and Linear Dichroism Summer School 2017". www.rsc.org. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  28. ↑ Administration. "Women in STEM". Macquarie University. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  29. ↑ "Twenty-two Australians recognised among our nation's most distinguished scientists | Australian Academy of Science". www.science.org.au. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  30. ↑ Rodger, Alison; Rodger, Mark (16 May 2014). Molecular Geometry. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN   9781483106038.
  31. ↑ Nordén, Bengt; Rodger, Alison; Dafforn, Tim (2010). Linear Dichroism and Circular Dichroism: A Textbook on Polarized-light Spectroscopy. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN   9781847559029.
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