The Twenty-Second Jerusalem Symposium reflected the high standards of these distinguished scientific meetings, which convene once a year at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem to discuss a specific topic in the broad area of quantum chemistry and 'biochemistry. The topic at this year's Jerusalem Symposium was Perspectives in Photosynthesis, which constitutes a truly interdisciplinary subject of central interest to biophysicists, and biologists. chemists The main theme of the Symposium was built around a conceptual framework for the acquisition, storage and useful disposal of energy in photosynthetic reaction centres. Emphasis was placed on the elucidation of primary charge separation processes in photosynthesis and their exploration within the framework of the electron transfer theory, on the interrelationship between structural data, inter­ actions and electron transfer kinetics, and on the role of protein dynamics in primary processes in photosynthesis. The interdisciplinary nature of these research areas was deliberated by intensive and extensive interactions between scientists from different disciplines and between theory and experiment. This volume provides a record of the invited lectures at the Symposium.

The Photosynthetic Reaction Center from the Purple Bacterium Rhodopseudomonas Viridis: Relation of Structure and Function.- A Structural Basis for Electron Transfer in Bacterial Photosynthesis.- Orientation of the Pheophytin Primary Electron Acceptor and of the Cytochrome B559 in the D1D2 Photosystem II Reaction Center.- Mechanism of Charge Separation in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers: Electric Field Effects on the Initial Electron Transfer Kinetics.- Electrostatic Analysis of the Midpoints of the Four Hemes in the Bound Cytochrome of the Reaction Center of RP. Viridis.- Primary Photochemistry in Reaction Centers from the HisM200 Leu Mutant of Rhodobacter Capsulatus.- A Note on Singlet-Singlet and Singlet-Triplet Exciton Interactions in the Bacterial Photosynthetic Reaction Center.- Determination of the Exchange Interaction in the Primary Radical Ion Pair in Reaction Centers.- Photoelectron Transfer Reactions: Porphyrins-Quinone. FT- and CW-Time Resolved-EPR Spectroscopies.- Structure and Marker Mode of the Primary Electron Donor State Absorption of Photosynthetic Bacteria: Hole Burned Spectra.- Influence of Chromophores on Quarternary Structure of Phycobiliproteins from the Cyanobacterium, Mastigocladus laminosus.- Environmental Dynamics and Electron Transfer Reactions.- Relaxation and Coherence in Simple Model Systems.- Superexchange Coupling Mechanisms for Electron Transfer Processes.- Sequential Versus Superexchange Electron Transfer in the Photosynthetic Reaction Center.- Non-Adiabatic Electron Transfer: Some Dynamical and Electronic Extensions of Standard Rate Expressions.- Biomolecular Dynamics - Quantum or Classical? Results for Photosynthetic Electron Transfer.- Femtosecond-Picosecond Laser Photolysis Studies on Electron Transfer Dynamics and Mechanisms inSome Model Systems.- Protein Configurâtional Fluctuation Dependence of the Electronic Tunnel Factor of Modified Metalloprotein Electron Transfer Systems and in Fast Direct and Superexchange Separation and Recombination in Bacterial Photosynthesis.- Solvent Polarity Effects on Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Intramolecular Electron Transfer Reactions.- Solvation Dynamics and Ultrafast Electron Transfer.- Frequency Factor for the Outer-Sphere Electron Transfer. Bridging Between the Diabatic, Adiabatic and Solvent-Controlled Limits.- Static and Dynamic Electrolyte Effects on Excited State Intramolecular Electron Transfer and Excited-State Solvation.- Hierarchical Relaxation: Ultrametric Spaces.- The Superexchange Model for the Primary Charge Separation in Bacterial Photosynthesis.- Role of Charge Transfer States of the Special Pair in Primary Photosynthetic Charge Separation.- Photosynthetic Model Systems that Address the Role of Superexchange in Electron Transfer Reactions.- Electronic Excitations and Electron Transfer Coupling within the Bacterial Reaction Center Based on an INDO/S-CI Supermolecule Approach including 615 Atoms.- Self Assembly of Bacteriochlorophyll a and Bacteriopheophytin a in Micellar and Non-Micellar Aqueous Solutions; Application to the Pigment-Protein Organization in Light-Harvesting Complexes and Reaction Centers.- Protein Dynamics in the Photosynthetic Reaction Center: the Electron Transfer from Cytochrome c to the Special Pair.- Mössbauer Spectroscopy on Photosynthetic Bacteria: Investigation of Reaction Centers of Rhodopseudomonas Viridis..- Magnetic Resonance and Molecular Orbital Studies of the Primary Donor States in Bacterial Reaction Centers.- Index..