Chemistry and light: an adventure into probing, understanding and controlling events at the molecular scale.

This document is a special collection of papers in Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences that celebrates the career of Prof. Dr. A. M. 'Fred' Brouwer and his contributions to the field of photochemistry. It provides an overview of Fred's career at the University of Amsterdam, where he made significant advancements in computational chemistry and molecular modeling. Fred's research focused on intra- and intermolecular electron transfer and fluorescence spectroscopy. He also collaborated on groundbreaking work on light-powered molecular motors and the chemistry of high-resolution extreme ultraviolet photo-resists. Fred's teaching and conference contributions were highly regarded, and he had a lasting impact on his students and colleagues. [Extracted from the article]