Ten fun facts about Ahmed Zewail
Fact 1
He is known as the “father of femtochemistry.”
Fact 2
He won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry.
Fact 3
He became the first Egyptian scientist who won Nobel Prize in a scientific field.
Fact 4
He is the Linus Pauling Chair Professor Chemistry, Professor of Physics and the director of the Physical Biology Centre for the Ultrafast Science and Technology (UST) at the California Institute of Technology.
Fact 5
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), the Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society and Davy Medal from the Royal Society in 2011.
Fact 6
In 1999, he received Egypt's highest state honor, the Grand Collar of the Nile.
Fact 7
Zewail was awarded an honorary doctorate by Lund University in Sweden in May 2003 and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Fact 8
After some post doctorate work at UC-Berkeley, he was awarded a faculty appointment at Caltech in 1976, where he has remained since 1990, he was made the first Linus Pauling Chair in Chemical Physics. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Fact 9
Zewail has been nominated and will participate in President Barack Obama's Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), an advisory group of the nation's leading scientists and engineers to advise the President and Vice President and formulate policy in the areas of science, technology, and innovation.
Fact 10
In 1999, Zewail became the third Egyptian national to receive the Nobel Prize, following Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat (1978 in Peace), Naguib Mahfouz (1988 in Literature).
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