Recent Progress in Electron Scattering from Atoms and Molecules.

We present and discuss recent results, both experimental and theoretical (where possible), for electron impact excitation of the 3s[3/2]1 and 3s[½]1 electronic states in neon, elastic electron scattering from the structurally similar molecules benzene, pyrazine, and 1,4-dioxane and excitation of the electronic states of the important bio-molecule analogue α-tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol. While comparison between theoretical and experimental results suggests that benchmarked cross sections for electron scattering from atoms is feasible in the near-term, significant further theoretical development for electron-molecule collisions, particularly in respect to discrete excitation processes, is still required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]