This mini-symposium, organised by Trevor Smith & Chris Hall (UniMelb), Tak Kee (Adelaide) and Jeff Davis (Swinburne, FLEET), was held at Swinburne University on February 10-11, 2020. The symposium concentrated on the diverse range of ultrafast laser spectroscopic applications that are of interest across various laboratories in Australia and New Zealand. It was supported financially by the Exciton Science and FLEET ARC Centres of Excellence, and local laser suppliers Coherent Scientific, Lastek and Newspec. In total approximately 50 people registered from around Australia and New Zealand, with some international quests from the USA, Canada and Sweden. This included Exciton Science AI Greg Scholes and two members of his group at Princeton, Dr Kyra Schwarz (who went on to become an Exciton Science post-doc) and PhD student Ben Zhang.

Topics of direct relevance to Exciton Science were discussed including: transient absorption spectroscopy and microscopy, ultrafast transient vibrational spectroscopy, singlet fission, proton and electron transfer, applications of multi-dimensional coherent spectroscopy, fluorescent chemical sensors, time-resolved photoluminescence measurements, lanthanide luminescence, light-matter strong coupling, hot carriers in perovskites, exciton-polariton condensates, ultrafast spectroscopy of organic materials and bulk heterojunctions, and control of electrons using the electric field of light.

The symposium provided a great opportunity for us to hear about the exciting ultrafast laser spectroscopy that’s being done, both here in Australia and New Zealand and in the laboratories of a few of our international colleagues. It was also an opportunity to publicise what capabilities there are in ultrafast laser spectroscopy around the country and identify gaps in our infrastructure, establish and strengthen collaborations, and discuss the appetite for hosting one of the international conferences targeting ultrafast phenomena in Australia in the near future. It is hoped that this mini-symposium will become a regular event, with the next symposium planned to be run in New Zealand.