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American Muslim Awarded Nobel Prize

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Like the great Muslim minds of centuries past, comes yet another pioneer in the field of science, this time from our own century. Following along the footsteps of Jabir Ibn Haiyan (died 803 C.E.), known as the Father of Chemistry, 53-year-old Egyptian-American Ahmed H. Zewail has rightfully taken his place among the long line of Muslim contributors to the field of science.

On October 12, Zewail was honored with the 1999 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. According to the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, Zewail was awarded “for showing that it is possible with rapid laser technique to see how atoms in a molecule move during a chemical reaction.”

Zewail is the third recipient of the Nobel Prize in Egyptian history. It was in 1978 that the late president Anwar Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize with former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. In 1988, famous Egyptian writer Nagib Mahfouz, author of such novels as Madak Alley, Miramar, and Arabian Nights and Days won the Literature Prize.

Following his receipt of the Nobel Prize, Zewail was congratulated by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his achievement and major contribution to science. In 1995 Mubarak presented Zewail with the Order of Merit, first class. In 1998 Zewail was honored with an Egyptian postage stamp with his picture on it. Zewail has also been a recipient of countless honors.

"This year's laureate in Chemistry is being rewarded for his pioneering investigation of fundamental chemical reactions, using ultra-short laser flashes, on the time scale on which the reactions actually occur,’’ the academy said of Zewail's work.

Zewail was born in 1946 in Itayi Al-Barud, north of Cairo. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Alexandria University and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. After two years at the University of California at Berkeley as an IBM research fellow, he was employed at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena where he has the Linus Pauling Chair of Chemical Physics since 1990. Zewail holds Eygptian and American citizenship.

In the past 10 years, all recipients who won or shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry were U.S.-based scientists. On December 10, winners will be presented with a check for $960,000. The presentation will be held on the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor whom the prize is named for.

“Professor Zewail's contributions have brought about a revolution in chemistry and adjacent sciences, since this type of investigation allows us to understand and predict important reactions,” the academy said.