Ahmed Zewail
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| أحمد حسن زويل Ahmed Hassan Zewail |
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 Ahmed Zewail (left)
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| Born | February 26, 1946 Damanhour, Egypt |
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| Nationality | Egyptian-American |
| Fields | Chemistry, physics |
| Known for | Femtochemistry |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1999) |
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. Also 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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[edit] Birth and education
Ahmad Zewail was born on February 26, 1946 in Damanhour (60 km south-east of Alexandria) 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.
[edit] Academic career
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.
[edit] Research
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), and the Robert A. Welch Award (1997). In 1999, he received Egypt's highest state honor, the Grand Collar of the Nile.
Zewail was awarded a Ph.D. 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.[1]
Zewail is married, and has four children.
[edit] Publications
- (1) Advances in Laser Spectroscopy I, ed. A. H. Zewail, SPIE, Bellingham, 1977
- (2) Advances in Laser Chemistry, ed. A. H. Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg,
1978
- (3) Photochemistry and Photobiology, Vols. 1 and 2, ed. A. H. Zewail, Harwood
Academic, London, 1983
- (4) Ultrafast Phenomena VII, eds. C. B. Harris, E. P. Ippen, G. A. Mourou and A. H.
Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1990
- (5) The Chemical Bond: Structure and Dynamics, ed. A. H. Zewail, Academic
Press, Boston, 1992
- (6) Ultrafast Phenomena VIII, eds. J.-L. Martin, A. Migus, G. A. Mourou, and A. H.
Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1993
- (7) Ultrafast Phenomena IX , eds. P. F. Barbara, W. H. Knox, G. A. Mourou and A. H.
Zewail, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1994
- (8) Femtochemistry: Ultrafast Dynamics of the Chemical Bond, A. H. Zewail,
Vols. 1 and 2, World Scientific, Singapore, 1994
- (9) Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize, A. H. Zewail,
American University in Cairo (AUC), Cairo, 2002; appeared in 17 languages and editions: English, French, German, Spanish, Romanian, Hungarian, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Bahasa Malaysia, Indonesian, Hindi; and 4 editions
- (10) Age of Science (Asr Al Álm, in Arabic), A. H. Zewail, Dar Al Shorouk, Beirut-Cairo,
2005; appeared in the seventh edition since publication in June 2005
- (11) Time (Al Zaman, in Arabic), Book Series, A. H. Zewail, Dar Al Shorouk, Cairo, 2007
- (12) Dialogue of Civilizations (Hewar Al Hadarat, in Arabic), Book Series, A. H. Zewail,
Dar Al Shorouk, Cairo, 2007
- (13) Physical Biology: From Atoms to Medicine, ed. A. H. Zewail, Imperial College Press,
London, 2008
- Ahmad Zewail was one of the original editors of the Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry
[edit] References
- ^ Kheetan, Thameen (26 February 2009). "Egyptian Nobel laureate calls for ‘scientific renaissance’ in Arab world". Jordan Times. http://jordantimes.com/?news=14610&searchFor=zewail. Retrieved on 2009-02-28.
