Egyptian union to honor Egypt's next Nobel laureate?
Egypt, Science, 10/4/1997

Dr. Ahmed H. Zewail, a chemical physics professor at the prestigious California Institute of Technology, will be honored by Egypt's Ain Shams University on October 18 at a scientific festival.

"The festival will include a meeting between Dr. Zewail, professors and students at the university's faculty of science. Dr. Zewail will underline his career and contribution during the meeting in the optical energy center," Ain Shams union's dean told reporters yesterday according to Al Gomhoria daily.

Dr. Zewail has previously been honored for his work in femtochemistry, which uses ultra-fast to take images at the movement of atoms and molecules during chemical reactions. A femtosecond, as described by his institute, is one millionth of one billionth of a second, or about the time it takes light to travel 1/100th of the width of a human hair. Using pulsed lasers, Zewail and his group have devised techniques for catching atoms in the act of coming together and reacting to form molecules, and for catching molecules in the act of falling apart to form new molecules. These "molecular births" occur in times of less than a millionth of a millionth of a second, and before Zewail's work, scientists had been unable to study such ultrafast events directly in real time.

Dr. Zewail currently in the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering department of the California Institute of Technology has received many awards such as the "King Faisal International Prize", and the "Harrison-Howe Award for Achievment in Chemistry", the "Order of Merit" from Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak. The Order of Merit from the president, which is comparable to knighthood in Britain, is bestowed by the state of Egypt to those who have reached the highest levels in the arts and sciences. Nobel Prize-winning author was such a recipient in the past.

Zewail also received the Leonardo da Vinci Award of Excellence for 1995 on July 4 at a ceremony in Paris, France. The da Vinci Award, whose recipients are selected by an international jury with members from the United States, Europe, and Japan, is awarded by the Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton Foundation of France.

Zewail, who was born and educated in Egypt and is now an American citizen. He has the prestegious title of "Linus Pauling" professor of Chemical Physics.

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