C-60 (I-h) and several higher fullerenes, namely, C-70 (D-5h), C-76 (D-2), and C-78 (C-2v’), have been solubilized via capping with suitable surfactants. Excited states and reduced states of these surfactant systems were probed by photolytic and radiolytic techniques. mash photolytic irradiation at 355 nm of surfactant solutions of C-60, C-70, C-76, and C-78 revealed the rapid grow-in of transient (*S-1 --> *S-n) absorptions with lambda(max) at 920, 660, 650, and 890 nm, respectively. The associated intersystem crossing rates to the energetically lower lying excited triplet states are typically on the order of 9.0 x 10(8) s(-1) Reductive quenching of the excited triplet states by diazabicyclooctane (DABCO) occurs with (0.8-7.4) x 10(7) M-1 s(-1) and yields the fullerene pi-radical anions. Direct reduction of surfactant capped fullerene monomers have been studied by means of time-resolved pulse radiolysis with measurements being conducted in the near-IR region. Radiolytic reduction of (C-76)(surfactant) and (C-78)(surfactant) resulted in the formation of characteristic pi-radical anion bands positioned at 920 and 980 nm, respectively. Rate constants have been measured for the reduction of these fullerene-surfactant systems with hydrated electrons (k(et) = (2.6-3.9) x 10(10) M-1 s(-1)) and (CH3)(2) . C(OH) radicals (k(et) = (3.0-7.2) x 10(8) M-1 s(-1)).