The American Physical Society (APS), is the world's largest organization of physicists. It was founded in 1899 with the aim to “to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics". Today, the APS numbers some 50,000 members world-wide, and publishes over a dozen scientific journals, including the prestigious Physical Review and Physical Review Letters. It also runs more than twenty science conferences each year. APS is also a member society of the American Institute of Physics.

The APS has elected Majed Chergui, Professor of Physics and Chemistry at EPFL, as a Fellow. This is a distinct honor considering that Fellows make up a mere 0.5% of the Society’s membership. According to its criteria, fellowships is awarded for “exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise; e.g., outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education.”

At EPFL, Majed Chergui pursues a variety of ultrafast UV and X-ray spectroscopic studies on chemical and biological systems. Since 2013, he has been founding Editor-in-chief of the journal Structural Dynamics, a flagship journal of the American Institute of Physics and the American Crystallographic Association.

With the Fellowship, the APS recognizes Majed Chergui for “pioneering ultrafast x-ray spectroscopy, developing novel ultrafast optical spectroscopic methods that were used to answer scientific questions on molecular and biomolecular dynamics in solutions and on the charge carrier dynamics in nanoparticles.”