Professor Jasper J. van Thor is a Professor of Molecular Biophysics at Imperial College London's Department of Life Sciences under the Faculty of Natural Sciences. His research focuses on ultrafast spectroscopy and structural dynamics of proteins, leveraging X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) and advanced optical techniques. Key affiliations include the Centre for Structural Biology, Electron Microscopy Centre, and Energy Futures Lab. Education: MSc Chemistry (1993) and PhD in Chemistry (1999) from the University of Amsterdam, specializing in oxygenic photosynthesis. He held Royal Society and HFSP fellowships at the University of Oxford before joining Imperial College in 2007, where he established the Ultrafast Spectroscopy Laboratory and Molecular Biophysics Group. Research Interests: Ultrafast phenomena in biological systems, structural dynamics of photoreceptors, and development of theoretical tools for analyzing multi-pulse spectroscopy. Notable contributions include the Hula-Twist mechanism in fluorescent proteins and femtosecond X-ray crystallography of Photosystem II. Publications highlight advancements in ultrafast structural biology, with a focus on XFEL applications and computational modeling (e.g., PyLDM software for lifetime density analysis). Awards include the Royal Society University Research Fellowship and EMBO Long-Term Fellowship. Lab Activities: Director of the Imperial College network for Ultrafast Measurement Frontiers and PI of the LUXD (Ultrafast X-ray Diffraction) facility. Collaborates globally on XFEL projects (LCLS, SACLA, European XFEL).







