The past 10-15 years have seen major advances in ultrafast optical spectroscopies, leading notably to the development of two-dimensional electronic (UV-Vis) spectroscopies, novel electronic-vibrational techniques, and femtosecond transient X-ray experiments. Due to this progress, quantum processes in molecular systems, ranging from small molecules to biological systems and functional materials, are amenable to study in unprecedented detail. Experimental advances have been accompanied by equally impressive progress in the theoretical understanding and simulation of high-dimensional molecular systems undergoing photoexcitation. The concepts of collective excitations and coherent dynamics in ultrafast photochemical reactions in complex systems – such as energy harvesting and charge transfer in photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes and the generation of excitons and free charges in optoelectronic materials – have been intensely debated in a multidisciplinary research effort, yielding an improved understanding of nonequilibrium phenomena guided by the interplay of quantum dynamics and environmental effects.

Against this background, the goal of this school + workshop event is to bring together a group of leading spectroscopists and theorists, to address the most recent progress and objectives in the study of energy and charge transfer in biomolecular systems and functional materials. A guiding theme is the matching between spectroscopic variables and quantum simulations, for various time-resolved spectroscopies including novel two-dimensional electronic-vibrational schemes as well as single-molecule and femtosecond X-ray transient techniques.

This event is a follow-up to several related workshops held at the Telluride Science Center (TSRC) in 2013, 2015, and 2019, as well as an online event in 2021, and previous workshops at Les Houches in 2017 and 2023.