Eva Rivera

Dr Eva Rivera received her PhD in Chemistry from Boston University, Massachusetts where she examined the effects of environment and sequence in the aggregation of amyloidogenic hIAPP_20-29 peptides. She studied computationally the crowding and confinement of these amyloidogenic peptides, and she developed a model for their aggregation propensity due to salt concentrations based on surface tension. She also computationally constructed and simulated revers AOT micelles to study effect of confinement on the amyloidogenic AB_16-22 and Sup_7-13 peptides.

After her dissertation under Prof John Straub, she took a post doctorial research fellowship at the Atlantic Center for Atomistic and Molecular Modeling in the Department of Physics an the University College Dublin. There she developed and simulated molecular dynamics models of the Fenno-Matthews-Olson(FMO) complex under various solvation conditions. She also explored the effects of secondary structure and protein mobility on chromophore energetics.

She continued her research as a Post Doctorial Research Fellow at the Department of Physics at the Uiversita di Roma `La Sapienza'. There, she worked on the molecular mechanics model for the reaction center of purple bacteria, and she explored the effects of secondary structure on the chromphores of FMO.

After returning back to the Atlantic Center for Atomistic and Molecular Modeling at the University College Dublin, she developed the site-dependent model for energy transfer in FMO, including contributions from site specific interactions. At the institution, she started to develop and simulate molecular mechanics model of Light Harvesting 2(LH2) complex from purple bacteria.

After joining the Jang Group at Queens College, she continued her work on the LH2 Complex where she explored the effects of symmetry on energy transfer. She looked into electronic structure calculations to quantify the hydrogen bonding in these complexes. Dr Rivera also started work in simulating the olfactory receptor OR7D4 and its mutations. She has contributed to the two grants to use the supercomputing facilities of the D.E. Shaw company's specialized Anton computer, and the systems at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Center for Functional Nano-materials.

Education

B.A. in Chemistry, University of Florida
PhD in Chemistry, Boston University

Research Interests

Dr Rivera is interested in simulation of large-scale biological systems using classical molecular dynamics. She would like to understand the contribution of protein environments on the energy transfer in photosynthetic complexes, and specific environmental interactions on excitation energies of pigment molecules. She is interested in simulation techniques for determining the free-energy profile of biological processes such protein folding, behavior, and efficiency. Her research interests have now extended to the simulations of olfactory receptors and behavior-modifying mutations.

Email: Eva.Rivera@qc.cuny.edu