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Min Chen is a biologist and associate professor at the School of Biological Science in The University of Sydney and Sydney Uni node leader of ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis, funding by Australian Government Australian Research Council. Her research is primarily concerned with elucidating the molecular and biochemical mechanism of the energy-storing reactions in photosynthetic organisms, especially the function of novel photopigments in oxygenic photosynthetic bacteria.

In October 2011, A/Prof Chen was awarded the Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year, for her role in discovering a new form of chlorophyll, called chlorophyll f. Her research found that chlorophyll f has an absorption maximum at 706nm in vitro, which suggests that oxygenic photosynthesis can be extended even further into the infrared region, which may open up associated bioenergy applications. The function of Chlorophyll f in photosynthetic reactions is uncertain and the ecological distribution of chlorophyll f remains unknown.