Professor Tempelaar’s group seeks to unravel how quantum mechanics dictates the optical and dynamical properties of biologically relevant and emerging materials. In many such materials, a multitude of components such as electrons, nuclei, and optical modes interact, resulting in behavior that seems nontrivial based on known fundamental principles. Examples can be found in the light-to-energy conversion in photosynthesis, charge interactions in semiconducting atomic monolayers, and the hybridization of photons and electronic states inside nano cavities. By developing new numerical and analytical tools they make such behavior comprehensible, while advancing our fundamental understanding of the chemistry and physics at the nano scale.