Majed Chergui

Majed Chergui is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and group leader at the Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste. He received his BS in physics and mathematics from the University of London, his MS in atomic and molecular physics, and his PhD in physics from the University of Paris-sud (Orsay). He worked as a research associate of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) before becoming a research associate at the Free University of Berlin. Prior to joining EPFL, he was appointed Full Professor of Physics at the University of Lausanne.

Chergui’s career has been characterised by the development of novel ultrafast spectroscopic tools to address specific scientific questions. Thus, he pioneered X-ray spectroscopy and broadband deep-ultraviolet spectroscopy, with which he solved a number of scientific questions on the fundamental aspects of photo-induced dynamics of molecules, the correlated electronic, spin and structural dynamics in metal complexes, the photo-induced dynamics in retinal proteins and haem proteins in solution. Finally, he unravelled several novel types of excitons in transition metal complexes and in perovskites, and characterised their charge carrier, as well as their structural dynamics upon photoexcitation. His current interests focus on X-ray spectroscopic studies of molecular chirality in solutions.

He is a Fellow of Optica, EPS, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and several other scientific societies. He is a Foreign Correspondent of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences. His awards include the William F. Meggers Award, the Humboldt Research Prize, the Kuwait Prize for Physics, the Earle Plyler Award, the Liversidge Award, the Ahmed Zewail Award, the Rognlie Prize, and the Great Arab Minds Award.