David N. Beratan (born 1958) is an American chemist and physicist, the R.J. Reynolds Professor of Chemistry at Duke University.
He began his graduate studies in electron transfer theory at California Institute of Technology, where he received a Doctor of Philosophy in 1986, advised by John Hopfield.
[6] At JPL, he developed the tunneling pathway model for biological electron transfer (with José Onuchic)[7] and general principles for optimizing the nonlinear response of organic structures (with Joseph W Perry and Seth Marder).
[6] At Pittsburgh he pioneered studies of DNA electron transfer,[9] developed the foundations of inverse molecular design theory,[10] and developed strategies to assign the absolute stereochemistries of natural products using theoretical calculations (with Peter Wipf) of optical rotations.
Ongoing studies in the Beratan lab target the design of molecular structures and assemblies to capture and convert solar energy, defining mechanisms of multi-electron redox catalysis, mapping charge transfer pathways and mechanisms in extremophiles, designing molecular structures that focus oscillator strength for light absorption, creating functional de novo proteins, enumerating diversity-oriented property-biased molecular libraries, exploring charge transfer over micrometer to centimeter distances in bacterial nanowires and bacterial cables, understanding how exciting molecular vibrations can change electron transport dynamics, and understanding the physical principles that underpin host-guest interactions.