These Special Issues will showcase original, cutting-edge research from across the chemical sciences, highlighting the early-career researchers conducting work at the forefront of these fields. Submit your nomination by September 30, 2026.
To celebrate the early-career researchers breaking new ground in the chemical sciences, the ACS Au journals invite you to join the “2027 Rising Stars.”
These Special Issues in ACS Bio & Med Chem Au, ACS Environmental Au, ACS Materials Au, ACS Engineering AU, ACS Measurement Science Au, ACS Nanoscience Au, and ACS Organic & Inorganic Au will showcase original, cutting-edge, and impactful research from across the chemical sciences. The scope of these Special Issues is intentionally broad and aims to highlight the early-career researchers conducting work at the forefront of these fields.
Those who are selected as Rising Stars will be invited to submit to the respective journal. These Rising Star publications will appear in issues throughout 2027 and then be collected in Special Issues at the end of the year, which will be widely promoted. The work will be highlighted as a significant contribution from a researcher who is breaking new ground in their field. As the ACS Au journals are fully open access, your paper will be available to anyone, at anytime, anywhere in the world.
How to Nominate
We welcome nominations (including self-nominations) to be featured in these Special Issues until September 30, 2026.
Please submit your nomination to the topically appropriate journal, acknowledging the scope and community of the journal. If you have any questions regarding suitability, please get in touch.
We are looking for early-career investigators who are in the first eight years of their initial independent appointment (Assistant Professor or equivalent) and are conducting research at the forefront of their field. Allowances are made for those who took career breaks for any reason; please reach out if you have any questions regarding eligibility.
Nominations close on September 30, 2026.
Organizing Editors
These Special Issues will be guided by the respective ACS Au Deputy and Associate Editors. Please visit each journal's Editorial Board webpage for more information:
2027 Rising Stars in Nanoscience
Nominations are open for the Special Issue “2027 Rising Stars in Nanoscience”! To shine a light on the early-career researchers making significant contributions to the field, we invite you to submit a nomination for the 2027 Rising Stars.
This special issue will showcase original, cutting-edge, and impactful research from the next cohort of early-career researchers working in the field of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. The scope of this special issue is intentionally broad and aims to highlight the researchers conducting work at the forefront of their field.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Synthesis, assembly, characterization, theory, modeling, and simulation of nanostructures, nanomaterials, and nanoscale devices
- Design, fabrication, and applications of organic, inorganic, polymer, hybrid, and biological nanostructures
- Experimental and theoretical studies of nanoscale chemical, physical, and biological phenomena
- Methods and tools for nanoscience and nanotechnology
- Self- and directed assembly
- Zero-, one-, and two-dimensional materials
- Nanostructures and nano-engineered devices with advanced performance
- Nanobiotechnology
- Nanomedicine and nanotoxicology
- Nano energy
Those who are selected as Rising Stars will be invited to submit to ACS Nanoscience Au. These Rising Star publications will appear in issues throughout 2027 and then be collected in a Special Issue at the end of the year, which will be widely promoted.
We welcome nominations (including self-nominations) to be featured in this special issue. Nominations close on September 30th, 2026.
Submit your nomination
2027 Rising Stars in Materials Science
Nominations are open for the Special Issue “2027 Rising Stars in Materials Science”! To shine a light on the early-career researchers making significant contributions to the field, we invite you to submit a nomination for the 2027 Rising Stars.
The 2027 Rising Stars in Materials Science special issue will showcase original, cutting-edge, and impactful research from early-career researchers driving change in materials science. The scope of this special issue is intentionally broad and aims to highlight the researchers conducting work at the forefront of their field as well as their research.
ACS Materials Au publishes work at the forefront of fundamental and applied research, and at the interface between materials and other disciplines, such as chemistry, engineering and biology.
Those who are selected as Rising Stars will be invited to submit to ACS Materials Au. These Rising Star publications will appear in issues throughout 2027 and then be collected in a Special Issue at the end of the year, which will be widely promoted.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Design, synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of forefront and emerging materials
- Understanding structure, property, performance relationships and their underlying mechanisms
- Development of materials for energy, environmental, biomedical, electronic, and catalytic applications
We welcome nominations (including self-nominations) to be featured in this special issue. Nominations close on September 30th, 2026.
Submit your nomination
2027 Engineering Au Rising Stars Nomination
Nominations are open for the Special Issue “2027 Rising Stars in Engineering”! To shine a light on the early-career researchers making significant contributions to the field, we invite you to submit a nomination for the 2027 Rising Stars.
This special issue will showcase original, cutting-edge, and impactful research from early-career researchers working in the field of chemical engineering, applied chemistry, and energy research applied to large-scale manufacturing operations, processes and products. The scope of this special issue is intentionally broad and aims to highlight the researchers conducting work at the forefront of their field.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Fundamental research in thermodynamics, transport phenomena (flow, mixing, mass & heat transfer), chemical reaction kinetics and engineering, catalysis, separations, interfacial phenomena, and materials
- Process design, development, and intensification (e.g., process technologies for chemicals and materials, synthesis and design methods, process intensification, multiphase reactors, microwave, cavitation, scale-up, systems analysis, process control, data correlation schemes, modeling, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence)
- Product research and development involving chemical and engineering aspects (e.g., catalysts, plastics, elastomers, fibers, adhesives, coatings, paper, membranes, lubricants, ceramics, aerosols, fluidic devices, intensified process equipment)
- Energy and fuels (e.g., pre-treatment, processing and utilization of renewable energy resources; processing and utilization of fuels; properties and structure or molecular composition of both raw fuels and refined products; fuel cells, hydrogen, batteries; photochemical fuel and energy production; decarbonization; electrification)
- Measurement techniques, computational models and data on thermo-physical, thermodynamic, and transport properties of materials and phase equilibrium behavior
- New methods, models and tools (e.g., real-time data analytics, multi-scale models, physics informed machine learning models, machine learning enhanced physics-based models, soft sensors, high-performance computing)
Those who are selected as Rising Stars will be invited to submit to ACS Engineering Au. These Rising Star publications will appear in issues throughout 2027 and then be collected in a Special Issue at the end of the year, which will be widely promoted.
We welcome nominations (including self-nominations) to be featured in this special issue. Nominations close on September 30th, 2026.
Submit your nomination
2027 Rising Stars in Environmental Research
Nominations are open for the Special Issue “2027 Rising Stars in Environmental Science”! To shine a light on the early-career researchers making significant contributions to the field, we invite you to submit a nomination for the 2027 Rising Stars.
This special issue will showcase original, cutting-edge, and impactful research from early-career researchers working in the field of environmental science and technology, both fundamental and applied. The scope of this special issue is intentionally broad and aims to highlight the researchers conducting work at the forefront of their field.
Those who are selected as Rising Stars will be invited to submit to ACS Environmental Au. These Rising Star publications will appear in issues throughout 2027 and then be collected in a Special Issue at the end of the year, which will be widely promoted.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Alternative energy
- Anthropogenic impacts on atmosphere, soil, or water
- Biogeochemical cycling
- Biomass or wastes as resources
- Contaminants in aquatic and terrestrial environments
- Environmental applications and implications of synthetic biology
- Environmental data science
- Environmental justice and equality
- Ecotoxicology and public health
- Energy and climate
- Environmental modeling, processes, and measurement methods and technologies
- Environmental nanotechnology and biotechnology
- Green chemistry
- Green manufacturing and engineering
- Risk assessment, regulatory frameworks, and life-cycle assessments
- Systems engineering and quantitative sustainability
- Treatment and resource recovery and waste management
We welcome nominations (including self-nominations) to be featured in this special issue. Nominations close on September 30th, 2026.
Submit your nomination
2027 Organic & Inorganic Au Rising Stars Nomination
Nominations are open for the Special Issue “2027 Rising Stars in Organic & Inorganic Chemistry”! To shine a light on the early-career researchers making significant contributions to the field, we invite you to submit a nomination for the 2027 Rising Stars.
This special issue will showcase original, cutting-edge, and impactful research from the next cohort of early-career researchers working in the field of organic and inorganic chemistry, including organometallics, catalysis, engineering, and process chemistry. The scope is intentionally broad, aiming to highlight researchers conducting significant experimental and/or theoretical studies at the forefront of these fields.
Those who are selected as Rising Stars will be invited to submit to ACS Organic & Inorganic Au. These Rising Star publications will appear in issues throughout 2027 and then be collected in a Special Issue at the end of the year, which will be widely promoted.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Synthetic organic chemistry, including new methodologies, total synthesis, and electrosynthesis
- Physical and theoretical organic chemistry, including mechanistic studies
- Natural product isolation, bioorganic, and medicinal chemistry
- Organometallic chemistry: synthesis, reactivity, catalysis, and bioorganometallics
- Inorganic chemistry: coordination, main-group, bioinorganic, and materials chemistry
- Homogeneous, heterogeneous, and biocatalysis
- Solid-state, nanoscale, and materials chemistry
- Organic process chemistry and green manufacturing
- Crystal growth and engineering of organic, inorganic, and hybrid materials
- Computational and theoretical studies
We welcome nominations (including self-nominations) to be featured in this special issue. Nominations close on September 30th, 2026.
Submit your nomination
2027 Rising Stars in Measurement Science
Nominations are open for the Special Issue “2027 Rising Stars in Measurement Science”! To shine a light on the early-career researchers making significant contributions to the field, we invite you to submit a nomination for the 2027 Rising Stars.
This special issue will showcase original, cutting-edge, and impactful research from the next cohort of early-career researchers working in experimental, computational, or theoretical research in all areas of chemical measurement science. The scope of this special issue is intentionally broad and aims to highlight the researchers conducting work at the forefront of their field.
Those who are selected as Rising Stars will be invited to submit to ACS Measurement Science Au. These Rising Star publications will appear in issues throughout 2027 and then be collected in a special issue at the end of the year, which will be widely promoted.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Chemical Reactions and Selectivity
- Chemometrics and Data Processing
- Electrochemistry
- Elemental and Molecular Characterization
- Imaging
- Instrumentation
- Mass Spectrometry
- Microscale and Nanoscale systems
- Omics (Genomics, Proteomics, Metabonomics, Metabolomics, and Bioinformatics)
- Sensors and Sensing (Biosensors, Chemical Sensors, Gas Sensors, Intracellular Sensors, Single-Molecule Sensors, Cell Chips, Arrays, Microfluidic Devices)
- Separations
- Spectroscopy
- Surface analysis
We welcome nominations (including self-nominations) to be featured in this special issue. Nominations close on September 30th, 2026.
Submit your nomination
Submitting to the Special Issues
Researchers who are selected to as contributors to the 2026 Rising Stars Special Issues will be notified by email.
We welcome submissions for this Special Issue through September 30, 2026. For more information on submission requirements, please visit the Author Guidelines page for your respective journal.
Papers accepted for the 2026 Rising Stars Special Issues will be available ASAP (as soon as publishable) online. After all submissions have been published, they will then be compiled online into a Special Issue in each journal. Manuscripts submitted for consideration will undergo the full rigorous peer review process expected from ACS journals.
How to Submit:
- Log in to the ACS Publishing Center.
- Select the “Journals” tab.
- Choose the relevant journal name.
- Click "Submit."
- Select your manuscript type, and, under "Special Issue Selection," choose “2026 Rising Stars."
If you have any general questions regarding submission to these Special Issues, please contact Au-eic@journals.acs.org.
Open Access
ACS Au community journals are fully open-access journals, which means your work will be immediately and freely available for anyone to read in perpetuity. We recognize that different authors have different levels of access to funding for Article Publication Charges (APCs). Therefore, evaluation of nominations will be entirely based on merit and not on financial resources.
We offer a range of options to support authors with open-access publishing, including through the ACS special country pricing policy, ACS institutional open access agreements, and a limited number of APC waivers, which can be offered at the discretion of the editor at the point of invitation.
