Professor Antonin (Tony) Vlcek

Profile

After 29 years working as a professor of inorganic chemistry at QMUL, I became "emeritus" in August 2025. I keep pursuing my scientific interests and active research in photophysics and photochemistry of transition-metal complexes, and light-energy harvesting.

Research

Research Interests:

My research strives to advance our understanding of the nature, dynamics, and reactivity of electronically excited transition-metal compounds in complex environments. We focus on photoinduced electron transfer in organometallic donor-acceptor assemblies and metalloproteins as well as on photophysics of binuclear metal complexes capable of photoinduced electron and atom transfer. Building on this understanding, we are looking for new applications in solar-energy harvesting, photo-driven molecular devices, and protein catalysis activated by light. It is a multidisciplinary research involving mechanistic investigations of photophysics, photochemistry, and electron-transfer reactivity using ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopic techniques in combination with theory. Our work is internationally connected through long-term collaborations, namely with the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry (Prague, Czechia) and California Institute of Technology (USA).

Publications

Selected recent publications:

• Kloz, M.;  Dostál, J.;  Mukherjee, A.;  Pižl, M.;  Šebesta, F.;  Hill, M. G.;  Gray, H. B.;  Záliš, S.; Vlček, A., Real-time Tracking of Photoinduced Metal-Metal Bond Formation in a d8d8 Di-Iridium Complex by Vibrational Coherence and Femtosecond Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 9810−9824.
• Melčák, M.;  Heyda, J.;  Šebesta, F.;  Gray, H. B.;  Záliš, S.; Vlček, A., Electron Transport through a Tryptophan Quadruplex in a Dimeric Azurin Construct. J. Phys. Chem. B 2026, 130, 1503−1514.
• Takematsu, K.;  Williamson, H. R.;  Nikolovski, P.;  Kaiser, J. T.;  Sheng, Y.;  Pospíšil, P.;  Towrie, M.;  Heyda, J.;  Hollas, D.;  Záliš, S.;  Gray, H. B.;  Vlček, A.; Winkler, J. R., Two Tryptophans are Better than One in Accelerating Electron Flow Through a Protein. ACS Cent. Sci. 2019, 5, 192−200.
• Záliš, S.;  Heyda, J.;  Šebesta, F.;  Winkler, J. R.;  Gray, H. B.; Vlček, A., Photoinduced hole hopping through tryptophans in proteins. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2021, 118, 5775−5785.
• Melčák, M.;  Šebesta, F.;  Heyda, J.;  Gray, H. B.;  Záliš, S.; Vlček, A., Tryptophan to Tryptophan Hole Hopping in an Azurin Construct. J. Phys. Chem. B 2024, 128, 96−108.
• Monni, R.;  Capano, G.;  Auböck, G.;  Gray, H. B.;  Vlček, A.;  Tavernelli, I.; Chergui, M., Vibrational coherence transfer in the ultrafast intersystem crossing of a diplatinum complex in solution. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2018, 115, E6396–E6403.
• Pižl, M.;  Hunter, B. M.;  Sazanovich, I. V.;  Towrie, M.;  Gray, H. B.;  Záliš, S.; Vlček, A., Excitation-Wavelength-Dependent Photophysics of d8d8 Di-isocyanide Complexes. Inorg. Chem. 2022, 61, 2745-2759.