Laser and optical spectroscopies are used extensively at UMBC to understand the dynamics of photoinitiated events that occur on time scales ranging from femtoseconds to seconds. Our laser laboratories are equipped with pulsed femtosecond, picosecond, and several nanosecond laser/detection systems. In addition, Raman and non-linear spectroscopies are used for biological imaging and remote atmospheric detection. Time-resolved linear dichroism is used to initiate and probe the earliest events of photochemical reactions in efforts to understand and even predict reaction topochemistry and rotational diffusion. Using high peak-power lasers, coherent, back-scattered spectroscopy is being developed for remote detection of atmospheric components. The dynamics of fluorescent polymers, fabricated for environmental sensing applications, are studied using time-correlated single-photon counting to understand the mechanism of their response. Optical methods for non-invasive, and early, detection of cancer and disease are being developed using multi-photon spectroscopy. Finally computational chemistry is used to understand and predict vibrational energy redistribution in proteins, as well as to predict and model terahertz spectra.