Marina Bennati is a German physicist who is a professor at the University of Göttingen and the leader of research group ESR spectroscopy at the Max Planck Institute for multidisciplinary Sciences . Her research is focused on the development of high-field electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy for the characterisation of biomolecules and the methods of high-field dynamic nuclear polarization for the sensitivity enhancement of nuclear magnetic resonance.

Early life and education

Bennati started her scientific career in chemistry, earning a bachelor's degree at the University of Münster. Bennati earned her doctorate in physics at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wit ...

. She moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...

postdoctoral fellow. In 1999 she was promoted to staff research associate.

Research and career

Bennati returned to Germany in 2002, where she was made a lecturer at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

and awarded the International EPR Society Young Investigator award. She moved to the University of Göttingen in 2007, where she started a research group in electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. In particular, Bennati demonstrated that EPR can be used to study biomolecular structures such as

ribonucleotide reductase Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), also known as ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase (rNDP), is an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of deoxyribonucleotides from ribonucleotides. It catalyzes this formation by removing the 2'-hydroxyl group of th ...

. She has used electron nuclear double resonance to establish the orientation and distance of nuclear spins with respect to a paramagnetic centre. In biological processes, paramagnetic centres exist as metal ions or clusters. She has shown that pulsed EPR is sensitive to the interactions between unpaired electron spins. In 2012, Bennati was made Chair of the

program "New Frontiers in Sensitivity for EPR Spectroscopy: from Biological Cells to Nano Materials". The program looked to increase the sensitivity of electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, offering hope for the characterization of light degradation in photovoltaics and ''in vivo'' protein-protein interactions. To achieve this enhancement in sensitivity, Bennati worked on both the excitation and detection devices. In 2019, Bennati was awarded the Bruker prize for her outstanding work that spans not just ESR but also the neighbouring disciplines of NMR and DNP. She was awarded a

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

Advanced Grant in 2021. She was awarded the international EPR societies silver medal for her fundamental contributions to advance the physics of electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) and liquid-state dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) spectroscopy at high magnetic fields, and their application for the study of paramagnetic molecular systems.

Selected publications

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References

German women physicists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Münster alumni University of Stuttgart alumni German women academics German women chemists German chemists Academic staff of the University of Göttingen {{more cats, date=June 2021