| Ahmed Hassan Zewail | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 26, 1946 Damanhour, Egypt |
| Nationality | Egyptian |
| Fields | Chemistry, physics |
| Institutions | California Institute of Technology |
| Alma mater | University of Alexandria, University of Pennsylvania |
| Known for | Femtochemistry |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1999) The Franklin Medal (1998) (Wolf Prize 1993) Priestley Medal (2011) |
Ahmed Hassan Zewail (Arabic: أحمد حسن زويل) (born February 26, 1946 in Damanhour, Egypt) is an Egyptian-American scientist, and the winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. He is the Linus Pauling Chair Professor Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Zewail has been nominated and will participate in President Barack Obama's Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council will talk about education, science, defense, energy, the economy, and technology.
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Ahmad Zewail was born on February 26, 1946 in Damanhour and raised in Disuq. He received bachelor's degree and MS degree from the University of Alexandria before moving from Egypt to the United States to complete his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania with advisor Dr. Robin Hochstrasser. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.
After some post doctorate work at UC-Berkeley, he was awarded a faculty appointment at Caltech in 1976, where he has remained since. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982, and in 1990, he was made the first Linus Pauling Chair in Chemical Physics.
Zewail's key work has been as the pioneer of femtochemistry—i.e. the study of chemical reactions across femtoseconds. Using a rapid ultrafast laser technique (consisting of ultrashort laser flashes), the technique allows the description of reactions on very short time scales - short enough to analyse transition states in selected chemical reactions.
In 1999, Zewail became the third ethnic Egyptian to receive the Nobel Prize, following Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat (1978 in Peace) and Naguib Mahfouz (1988 in Literature). Other international awards include the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1993) awarded to him by the Wolf Foundation, the Tolman Medal (1997), the Robert A. Welch Award (1997), and the Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society in 2011.[1] In 1999, he received Egypt's highest state honor, the Grand Collar of the Nile.
Zewail was awarded a PHD. Honoris Causa by Lund University in Sweden in May 2003 and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Cambridge University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Science in 2006. In May 2008, Zewail received a PhD Honoris Causa from Complutense University of Madrid. In February, 2009, Zewail was awarded an honorary PhD in arts and sciences by the University of Jordan.[2] In May 2010, he received a PhD Honoris Causa in Humane Letters from Southwestern University.
Zewail is married, and has four children.
In his June 4, 2009 speech at Cairo University, US President Barack Obama announced a new Science Envoy program as part of a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world." In January, 2010 Ahmed Zewail, Elias Zerhouni, and Bruce Alberts became the first US science envoys to Islam, visiting Muslim-majority countries from North Africa to Southeast Asia.[3]
When asked about the rumors that he might run for Egyptian presidential election in 2011 and his political ambitions, Ahmed Zewail Said: "I am a frank man .. I have no political ambition, as I have stressed repeatedly that I only want to serve Egypt in the field of science and die as a scientist."[4]
1978
Academic, London, 1983
Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1990
Press, Boston, 1992
Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1993
London, 2008