This special issue contains a set of papers on the theme of Spectroscopy and Dynamics, one of the key areas of focus for this journal at the present time. Wide ranging aspects of these fields are covered including beam-surface and crossed-beam scattering, high-resolution spectroscopy and ab initio calculations on species ranging from diatomics to complexes and clusters to biomolecules and ionic species, ultracold molecules and chemistry and helium droplets, photoionization and photodissociation dynamics, intramolecular dynamics, quasiclassical and quantum mechanical trajectories, multiphoton techniques, femtochemistry, angular momentum polarization effects, and novel cavity enhanced spectroscopic detection techniques.
The volume is dedicated to honouring the exceptional contribution of Dick Zare to this area of science over a period of more than 40 years. Many of the authors of these papers are people who have worked with Dick, either as members of his group–as in my case–or as close collaborators. All of us have been inspired by Dick's imagination and vision and by his extraordinary ability to convey his ideas and understanding to audiences of all levels. This special issue has been easy to edit because of the eagerness of all the contributors invited to be involved–the only problem has been to ensure that all those who wanted to contribute were invited. Some were unable to contribute to this special issue because of its timing, but have nevertheless universally expressed their strong affection for Dick and admiration of his work. Dick's influence can be seen in every contribution to this volume–a testament to the breadth of his own contribution to science. It must be said that Dick was reluctant to allow such a tribute to be paid to him and therefore the emphasis of this issue has been placed on the scientific theme of these papers and the quality of science that is reported.
Dick is well known for the generous way that he supports others–for the warm enthusiasm with which he responds to their own scientific achievements and discoveries. His openness, integrity and honesty, and the spontaneous way that he shares his own constructive thoughts with his collaborators and competitors is an example to all. Dick has also been someone who takes the lead in speaking up for fundamental science and in conveying its beauty to schoolchildren, to politicians, to funding agencies and to fellow scientists. For this we owe him a debt of gratitude.
Dick Zare has been a member of the Editorial Board of Molecular Physics for over 23 years and we are proud to have this association and to be able to honour him in this way.