Call For Nominations: 2026 Rising Stars in Organic and Inorganic Chemistry

To celebrate the next generation of innovators, the 2026 Rising Stars initiative recognizes early-career researchers pushing the frontiers of organic and inorganic chemistry. By spotlighting cutting-edge contributions in these fields, we aim to amplify the impact of fresh ideas shaping the future of science. We invite you to submit a nomination for the 2026 Rising Stars in Organic and Inorganic Chemistry.

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 2026 and then be collected in a Special Issue 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 ACS Organic & Inorganic Au is fully open access, your paper will be available to anyone, at anytime, anywhere in the world.

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

Organizing Editors

Prof. Geraldine Masson, Deputy Editor, ACS Organic & Inorganic Au
Université de Paris-Saclay, France

Prof. P. Shiv Halasyamani, Associate Editor, ACS Organic & Inorganic Au
University of Houston, United States

Prof. Franc Meyer, Associate Editor, ACS Organic & Inorganic Au
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany

How to Nominate

We welcome nominations (including self-nominations) to be featured in this Special Issue until October 20, 2025.

We are seeking early-career investigators who are within 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.

Please fill out and submit the nomination form below. If you have any questions regarding suitability, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Submitting to the Special Issue

Researchers who are selected as 2026 Rising Stars will be notified by email.

We welcome submissions for this Special Issue through June 1, 2026. For more information on submission requirements, please visit the journal's Author Guidelines page.

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. Manuscripts submitted for consideration will undergo the full rigorous peer review process expected from ACS journals.

Open Access

ACS Organic & Inorganic Au is a fully open-access journal, 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.