ISSSMC-2024 is the twenty sixth event in the series of the biennial Galyna Puchkovska International School-Seminars on Spectroscopy of Molecules and Crystals that focuses on all modern aspects of experimental and theoretical spectroscopy of crystalline solids and magnetic materials, nanosystems, liquid crystals and amorphous materials, liquids, polymers and biological systems, surfaces and thin films, materials for opto- and molecular electronics, new spectroscopic methods and applications.

  The series begun in 1973 in Uzhhorod, and then was held in different locations throughout Ukraine – Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Nizhyn, Ternopil, Odessa in 2000, Sevastopol - Crimea (from 2005 to 2013), followed by Mukachevo (2015), Kyiv (2017), again in Odessa (2019) and Kyiv (2021). From 2005 the team from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv under the supervision of well-known physicist Professor Valeriy Pogorelov are activelly participated in the organization of School-Seminars. The participation of National Center “Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine” also added a new feature to the School-Seminar format, as it attracted promising school youth to this prestigious scientific event.

  The origination of Galyna Puchkovskaya School-Seminar happened at the time of scientific and technological revolution, the emergence of lasers and laser spectroscopy, the appearance of first high-resolution Fourier transformed spectrometers, the discovery of intriguing liquid crystalline materials, rapid development of nonlinear optics and nanoscale materials. Undoubtedly, molecular spectroscopy and crystal spectroscopy have played a huge role in the studies of newly discovered physical phenomena and their practical implementation. The discussions of the vital problems of laser physics, nonlinear optics, spectroscopy of structural transformations in solids and liquid crystals were an important part not only of the survey lectures of the spectroscopy experts, but also of the individual reports of young scientists at every School-Seminar. After the Soviet Union collapse in 1991, and Ukraine has declared its independence, foreign scientists have got the opportunity to participate in the Galyna Puchkovskaya's School-seminars. The first among them were Polish scientists, Professors Henryk Ratajczak, Lucian Sobchyk, Jan Baran, Zdzisław Lataika. Over the years, the scientists from other countries joined the School: France (Sylvia Turrel, Sawo Bratosh, Gilbert Lachenal), Sweden (Lars Pettersson), Lithuania (Vytautas Balevichyus, Leonas Valkūnas), Romania (Dana Dorohoi), Latvia (Jevgenijs Gabrusenoks, George Chikvaidze), Germany (Bernard Engelen, Uwe Eichhoff, Manfred Westermeier, Hans Sisler), USA (Jerzy Leszczynski), Canada (Mike Zavorotko, Camille Sandorfy), as well as from many other countries. The average size of each event of about 100 participants makes up a friendly informal academic atmosphere for scientists, researchers and research students to share their experiences and recent advances covering all aspects of spectroscopy. It also provides a platform for participant to present and discuss their most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges in the fields of molecular spectroscopy. In total, almost 3,000 scientists and students from more than 20 countries have attended the previous ISSSMC meetings.