Call for Papers: Majed Chergui Festschrift: Pushing the Frontiers of Femtochemistry

Understanding ultrafast electronic, structural, and spin dynamics remains a central challenge in physical chemistry and materials science. Key processes—solvation, electron transfer, spin crossover, chirality, and catalytic or photochemical function—occur on femtosecond timescales and demand probes spanning the deep UV to hard X ray regime. Emerging tools such as multidimensional spectroscopy, nonlinear X ray methods, and XFEL based structural probes now allow us to capture these events with unprecedented specificity across condensed phase systems, metal complexes, proteins, nanoparticles, and functional materials. This Special Issue highlights these advances while honoring Majed Chergui, whose pioneering work has continually expanded the frontiers of ultrafast science.

To recognize and honor Prof. Chergui’s contributions to the field, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, and The Journal of Physical Chemistry C are proud to host his Festschrift. This Special Issue aims to define the emerging scientific problems, showcase advances, highlight new materials frontiers, bridge communities, and clarify the conceptual frameworks needed to interpret ultrafast X-ray and optical signals in complex systems.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Ultrafast Dynamics and Spectroscopy: X-ray spectroscopies, Deep ultraviolet, 2D spectroscopy, Fluorescence, Circular and Helical dichroism
• Ultrafast (bio)molecular Process: Solvation dynamics, electron transfer, spin cross-over, chirality, Coordination complexes, protein dynamics
• Ultrafast condensed Phase Photophysics: Nanoparticles, transition metal oxides, perovskites
• Non-linear X-ray phenomena

Organizing Editors

Andrew Orr-Ewing, Executive Editor, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A
University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Andrea Cannizzo, Guest Editor
Universität Bern, Switzerland

Wojciech Gawelda, Guest Editor
Universität Paderborn, Germany

Stefan Haacke, Guest Editor
Université de Strasbourg - CNRS, France

Jan Helbing, Guest Editor
Universität Zurich, Switzerland

Submission Information

We welcome submissions for this Special Issue through January 31, 2027. For more information on submission requirements, please review the appropriate journal’s Author Guidelines:

• The Journal of Physical Chemistry A
• The Journal of Physical Chemistry B
• The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

Manuscripts of all types will be considered for this Special Issue. All submissions will undergo the full, rigorous peer review process expected from ACS journals. Papers accepted for publication in this Special Issue will be available online ASAP (as soon as publishable). Once all accepted papers are published, they will be compiled on a dedicated landing page to form the Special Issue.

Please Note: The online submission process for JPC does not allow authors to designate a particular Special Issue so it’s important to convey this information in the cover letter. To ensure an unbiased peer-review process, the journal asks that you:

• Do not mention the Special Issue or the honoree (other than in normal scientific citation) in your manuscript file. If you do, your manuscript will be returned for correction.
• Instead, when you submit your manuscript, please state prominently in the cover letter for the submission that the paper is intended for “Majed Chergui Festschrift: Pushing the Frontiers of Femtochemistry.”

As with all submissions to JPC, your manuscript for the Special Issue should represent a rigorous scientific report of original research. Manuscripts are expected to provide new physical insight and/or present new theoretical or computational methods of broad interest.

Open Access: There are diverse open access options for publications in American Chemical Society journals. Please visit our Open Science Resource Center for more information.

How to Submit

• Log in to the ACS Publishing Center and select The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, B, or C.
• Select your manuscript type; upload your manuscript and related files.
• Review the title and abstract fields to confirm any pre-populated information has transferred correctly.
• Confirm all other information is correct.
• Submit your article.
• Reminder: Please indicate in your cover letter only that you wish your paper to be included in the Special Issue: “Majed Chergui Festschrift: Pushing the Frontiers of Femtochemistry.”

If you are unsure if your research is within the scope of this Special Issue or have other questions about submitting a manuscript to the journal, please email JPC A Deputy Editor Ed Valeev’s office at efvaleev-office@jpc.acs.org.