Strong interactions between molecules and the quantized radiation field inside an optical cavity creates a set of new photon-matter hybrid states, so-called polariton states. These polariton states have shown to facilitate new chemical reactivities due to their hybridized nature of light and matter. Polariton chemistry thus provides a general new strategy to control chemical reactivity using quantized photon field and provides a new paradigm for enabling chemical transformations that can profoundly impact catalysis, energy production, and the field of chemistry at large.

Polariton chemistry has become a fast-growing community with exciting progress occurring daily. The proposed workshop will bring together experimentalists and theorists with different backgrounds (cavity QED, photochemistry, electronic structure, and quantum dynamics) together for a week of lively scientific discussions, exchanging the most recent scientific discoveries and discussing the most urgent challenges to resolve to move the field forward. We envision that this proposed workshop will become the scientific hub and the flagship conference for polariton chemistry in the world, and significantly benefit the entire community.