Ahmed H. Zewail, 1999 Chemistry Nobel Laureate and Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), CA, USA, has been awarded the 2011 Priestley Medal by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
The award recognizes Zewail’s “ultraslow-motion” imaging techniques for the study of ultrafast processes in chemistry, biology and materials science, through the use of femtochemistry. This allows the study of chemical processes on the femtosecond timescale by using lasers to capture frames of the motion of atoms and molecules as they undergo reactions. Zewail has also developed four-dimensional electron microscopy and associated methods to visualize materials and biological cells with unprecedented resolutions in both space and time.
Zewail was born in 1946 in Egypt. He studied at the University of Alexandria, Egypt, and earned a Ph.D. in 1974 from the University of Pennsylvania, USA. After two years at the University of California at Berkeley, he moved to Caltech. In addition to his academic duties, he is also on the US President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the first United States Science Envoy to the Middle East.
The award is the highest honor bestowed by the ACS, and consists of a certificate and a gold medallion commemorating the work of Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen.
- Zewail Is Named 2011 Priestley Medalist
Chemical & Engineering News, June 2010 - Priestly Medal, ACS
- Zewail’s Homepage
- Member of the International Advisory Board of Angewandte Chemie, ChemPhysChem, and other journals
- Author of the book: Reise Durch die Zeit – Weg zum Nobelpreis
Other articles related to the ACS meeting
- Removal of Strontium From Nuclear Waste
Removal of strontium from nuclear waste streams by desmid green algae - Hollywood Chemistry
And the Winner for the Most Accurate Science in a Movie or TV series goes to … - Kevlar-like Plastic from Pineapples and Bananas
Nano-cellulose fibers from plants may lead to stronger, lighter, and more sustainable materials to replace automotive plastics - Charles Lathrop Parson Award
Michael E. Strem, president of high purity chemicals maker Strem Chemicals, receives the ACS award for outstanding public service
- Dendrimersomes: A New Mode of Drug Delivery?
Amphiphilic branched nanostructures self-assemble in water to form packets capable of mimicking biological membranes - A New Class of Therapeutics
Staple peptides are able to address targets previously considered undruggable by conventional therapeutics
