Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian chemist Ahmed Zewail passes away

The Egyptian-born Nobel-winning scientist Ahmed Zewail passed away in the United States. He was 70.
Mr Zewail had won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999 for his pioneering work in femtochemistry. He is the first Arab Scientist to win the Nobel Prize.

About Ahmed Zewail

• Born on 26 February 1946 in Damanhur, Egypt.
• He is famously known as the father of femtochemistry and was Science Advisor to US President Barack Obama.
• He had received a Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees in Chemistry from Alexandria University. He had completed his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania.
• He was appointed as faculty at the California Institute of Technology in 1976. He became a naturalized citizen of US in 1982.
• In 2013, he had joined the United Nations Scientific Advisory Board. He was prolific writer and had authored about 600 scientific articles and 16 books.
• Awards and Honours: Egypt’s Order of the Grand Collar of the Nile, Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1993), Othmer Gold Medal (2009), Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society.He was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2001

Femtochemistry: It is the area of physical chemistry that studies chemical reactions on extremely short timescales, approximately 10⁻¹⁵ seconds (one femtosecond).

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2016