[en] These two thematic issues of Comptes Rendus Chimie (February and April-May 2006) contain papers contributed to the 15. International conference on Photochemical Conversion and Storage of Solar Energy (IPS-15), held from 4 to 7 July 2004 at the Pharmacy Faculty in Paris (France). With nearly 400 individuals attending, representing academics, national laboratories, industry from 33 countries, and with several exhibitions in the vendor section, the conference was most certainly a well attended success. Among the 340 presentations given during the meeting (plenary and invited lectures, oral and poster presentations), 59 will be found in this publication. The goal of this thematic issue was to provide a broad overview of the various topics covered by the IPS series, and happily the conference committee did not need to press participants at all to provide written versions of their research. A thorough review process insured that this publication represents the most novel and well-received contributions of the conference, in keeping with the high standards of the Comptes rendus. In this issue, we cover a range of topics, including photo-generated electron and energy transfer, bio-mimetic systems, dye-sensitized and polymer solar cells, environmental chemistry and design of nano-materials for photo-conversion. From the included prints, we can see the advanced knowledge base accumulated in the past 3 years regarding the structure and function of photosystem II, providing a more complete understanding of the architecture of the center for photosynthetic oxygen evolution. Today, we apply photo-catalysis in numerous applications, from air and water purification to the production of self-cleaning surfaces on windows and street lamps. These applications have attracted the interest of a wide variety of industrial sectors, especially to those using TiO₂-coated materials that make it possible to maintain clean, hydrophilic conditions on a surface without the addition of any chemicals in the process. In recent years, the intensive research and development of dye-sensitized solar cells has been established to understand the mechanisms of electron transfer, to improve the energetic efficiency and to expand the limits of cell durability in more extreme environmental conditions. (author)