A. H. Zewail. Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize,
American University in Cairo (AUC),
Cairo, 2002; so far in 17 languages and editions: English, French,
German, Spanish, Romanian, Hungarian (in press), Russian, Arabic,
Chinese, Korean, Bahasa Malaysian, Indonesian, Hindi; and 4 editions.
For detailed reviews of this book see, for example, articles written by
W. Sibbett, B. V. McKoy and C. A. McKoy, and M. Chergui.


For this journey on the road to the Nobel prize, I have been asked several
times to write a biography, or at least a biographical summary of my life. I
declined these invitations. I was of the opinion that a traditional biography
should represent a lifetime of work and experience and much effort and time are
needed to do it well. In July of 1997 while on a trip to Cairo this strong
feeling softened to a more moderate one. I was stimulated to ask a few
questions by two books I was reading, one titled A
History of Knowledge by Charles van Doren and the other Making Waves
by Charles Townes. How did I acquire knowledge? Why did I become a
scientist? What are the forces that have determined the walks of my own
life? What are the meanings of faith, destiny, and luck? In the attempt
to answer such complex questions, I began to sketch my thoughts....

D. L. Smith. Coherent Thinking,
Eng. Sci. 62, 7 (1999)


At 5:40 in the doggone morning on Tuesday,
October 12, Ahmed Zewail got a phone call.
But it wasn't a wrong number or a particularly
ambitious aluminum-window salesman—it was
the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences informing
him he had won the 1999 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
The citation reads, in part, that Zewail "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"...

Energy in Cosmos, Molecules and Life,
Alfred Nobel Symposium, Sånga-Säby Conference Center, Sweden, June 18-22, 2005.


This
unique occasion gathers the leading competence from three broad
scientific areas to discuss energy issues from an interdisciplinary
perspective. This Nobel Symposium is the first to include all of the
natural science categories of the Nobel Prize: physics, chemistry and
physiology or medicine. The purpose is to create conditions for
exchange and interaction, partly between different disciplines and
partly between promising young researchers and the world's leading
researchers...

Frontiers of Molecular Science,
Nobel Centennial Symposium, Friiberghs Manor, Örsundsbro and Stockholm
University, Sweden, December 4-7, 2001.


The Nobel
Foundation's Symposium program was initiated in 1965. Since that time
more than a hundred symposia have taken place. The symposia are devoted
to
areas of science where breakthroughs are occurring or deal with other
topics of
primary cultural or social significance. A series of Nobel Centennial
Symposia
was organized in 2001 to commemorate 100th anniversary of the Nobel
prizes given out for world-class accomplishments in physics, chemistry,
literature, peace, and physiology or medicine...

Molecular Frontiers,
a global effort to promote the understanding and appreciation of molecular science in society.


Molecular
Frontiers, a world-wide virtual institute, will seek to strengthen
the position of science in society—among the public, in education and
among politicians—as a primary approach to describing and analyzing
reality. The institute will provide a forum for exchange and analysis
of scientific advances and their implications, and will employ various
strategies to engage the public in an open dialogue. The institute's
activities will promote scientific knowledge in general with special
emphasis on the molecular perspective. As knowledge may be considered a
right to all, global open access will be a guiding principle...

Physical Biology
Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology.


At Caltech, the main mission of the newly-established Physical Biology
Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology (UST) is to develop the
science and technology for observing complex molecular structures in
motion using diffraction, spectroscopy, and microscopy. Such combined
atomic-scale resolutions in space and time constitute the basis for a
new field of study in what we refer to as four-dimensional (4D)
structural dynamics...

A. H. Zewail. The World in 50 Years, in
The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today, ed. M. Wallace, Thomas
Nelson, Nashville, 2008, p. 228.

The
world is an uncertain place, which is why the future and the unknown
absolutely fascinate us. Veteran television journalist Mike Wallace
asked the question "What will life be like 50 years from now?" to sixty
of the world's greatest minds. Their responses offer a fascinating
glimpse into the cultural, scientific, political, and spiritual moods
of the times...

A. H. Zewail. Science and Technology in the Twenty-First Century,
Academy of Sciences of Malaysia (ASM) Public Lecture, ASM, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 14,

2002.

Since the beginning of human civilization, science and technology has progressed in a
continuous process. Fire must have been an exciting new technology for the first humans
and to this day we are continuing research to fully answer the question, what is fire?
But the search for new knowledge is based on rational thinking, which is fundamental
for progress and for making new discoveries...

Physical Biology: From
Atoms to Medicine, ed. A. H. Zewail,
Imperial College Press, London (2008).

D. Shorokhov and A. H. Zewail. 4D Electron Imaging: Principles and Perspectives,
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 10, 2879 (2008).

O.-H. Kwon, B. Barwick, H. S. Park, J. S. Baskin and A. H. Zewail. Nanoscale Mechanical Drumming Visualized by 4D Electron Microscopy,
Nano Lett. 8, 3557 (2008).

B. Barwick, H. S. Park, O.-H. Kwon, J. S. Baskin and A. H. Zewail. 4D Imaging of Transient Structures and Morphologies in Ultrafast Electron Microscopy,
Science 322, 1227 (2008).

D.-S. Yang, C. Lao and A. H. Zewail. 4D Electron Diffraction Reveals Correlated Unidirectional Behavior in Zinc Oxide Nanowires,
Science 321, 1660 (2008).

O.-H. Kwon, B. Barwick, H. S. Park, J. S. Baskin and A. H. Zewail. 4D Visualization of Embryonic, Structural Crystallization by Single-Pulse Microscopy,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 8519 (2008).

M. M. Lin, L. Meinhold, D. Shorokhov and
A. H. Zewail. Unfolding and Melting of DNA (RNA) Hairpins: The
Concept of Structure-Specific 2D Dynamic Landscapes,
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 10, 4227 (2008).

F. Carbone, P. Baum, P. Rudolf and A. H. Zewail.
Structural Preablation Dynamics of Graphite Observed by Ultrafast Electron
Crystallography, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 035501 (2008).

H. Ma, C. Wan, A. Wu and A. H. Zewail. DNA Folding and Melting in Real Time:
Observed Collapsed Structures Redefine the Energy Landscape,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 712 (2007).

O.-H. Kwon and A. H. Zewail. Double Proton
Transfer Dynamics of Model DNA Base Pairs in the Condensed Phase,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 8703 (2007).

J. Tang, D.-S. Yang and A. H. Zewail. Ultrafast Electron
Crystallography. 3. Theoretical Modeling of Structural Dynamics,
J. Phys. Chem. C 111, 8957 (2007).

H. S. Park, J. S. Baskin, O.-H. Kwon and A. H. Zewail. Atomic-Scale Imaging in Real and Energy
Space Developed in Ultrafast Electron Microscopy, Nano Lett. 7,
2545 (2007).

N. Gedik, D.-S. Yang,
G. Logvenov, I. Bozovic and A. H. Zewail. Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in Cuprates
Observed by Ultrafast Electron Crystallography, Science
316, 425 (2007).

P. Baum, D.-S. Yang and
A. H. Zewail. 4D Visualization of Transitional Structures
in Phase Transformations by Electron Diffraction, Science
318, 788 (2007).

A. H. Zewail. 4D Ultrafast Electron Diffraction,
Crystallography, and Microscopy, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem.
57, 65 (2006).

J. S. Baskin and A. H. Zewail. Oriented
Ensembles in Ultrafast Electron Diffraction, Chem. Phys. Chem.
7, 1562 (2006).

M. S. Grinolds, V. A. Lobastov, J.
Weissenrieder and A. H. Zewail. Four-Dimensional Ultrafast Electron
Microscopy of Phase Transitions, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
103, 18427 (2006).

V. A. Lobastov, R. Srinivasan and A. H. Zewail. Four-Dimensional Ultrafast Electron
Microscopy, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 7069 (2005).

R. Srinivasan, J. S. Feenstra, S. T.
Park, S. Xu and A. H. Zewail. Dark
Structures in Molecular Radiationless Transitions Determined by Ultrafast
Diffraction, Science 307, 558 (2005).

D. H. Paik, I-R. Lee, D.-S. Yang, J. S. Baskin
and A. H. Zewail. Electrons in
Finite-Sized Water Cavities: Hydration Dynamics Observed in Real Time, Science 306, 672 (2004).

C.-Y. Ruan, V. A. Lobastov, F.
Vigliotti, S. Chen and A. H. Zewail. Ultrafast Electron Crystallography of
Interfacial Water, Science 304, 80 (2004).

H. Ihee, V. A. Lobastov, U. M. Gomez,
B. M. Goodson, R. Srinivasan, C.-Y. Ruan and A. H. Zewail. Direct Imaging of Transient Molecular
Structures with Ultrafast Diffraction, Science
291, 458 (2001).

Caltech 4D Microscope Revolutionizes the Way We Look at the Nano World,
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA, November 20, 2008.


More than a century ago, the development of the earliest motion picture
technology made what had been previously thought "magical" a reality:
capturing and recreating the movement and dynamism of the world around
us. A breakthrough technology based on new concepts has now
accomplished a similar feat, but on an atomic scale—by allowing, for
the first time, the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting
changes in the structure and shape of matter barely a billionth of a
meter in size.
Such "movies" of atomic changes in materials of gold and graphite,
obtained using the technique, are featured in a paper appearing in the
November 21 issue of the journal Science. 4D microscopy videos can be viewed at the UST web site...

Zewail Honored with Einstein Award,
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA, September 21, 2006.


The World Cultural Council will present the 2006 Albert Einstein World Award of Science
to Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical
Physics and professor of physics at the California Institute of
Technology.
This recognition is for his "pioneering development of the new field of
femtoscience and for his seminal contributions to the revolutionary
discipline of physical biology, creating new ways for better
understanding the functional behavior of biological systems by directly
visualizing them in the four dimensions of space and time," according
to the World Cultural Council's announcement...

Nobel Laureate Receives $17.5
Million Grant to Create the New Field of Physical Biology, California
Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA, August 10, 2005.


Nobel Prize-winning chemist and physicist Ahmed Zewail has received an $17.5
million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to create the
Ultrafast Science and Technology (UST) Center at the California Institute of Technology.

The center will focus on a new scientific discipline at Caltech for which Zewail has coined the name physical biology.
The field will create new ways of understanding the dynamical behavior
of biological systems by directly observing them in the four dimensions
of space and time...

Other
press releases.

Professor Ahmed Zewail has presented over three hundred named, plenary, and keynote lectures, including: Bernstein, Berson,
Bodenstein, Cavendish (Scott Series), Celsius, Condon, Aimé Cotton,
Coulson, Debye, Einstein (Berlin, New Delhi,
Mexico), Eyring, Faraday, Franklin (Benjamin), Gandhi, Helmholtz, Hinshelwood, Karrer, Kirkwood,
Kistiakowsky, Lawrence, London, Nobel, Novartis, Noyes, Onassis, Ørsted, Pascal (Blaise), Pauling,
Perrin, Pimentel, Planck, Polanyi, Raman, Roberts, Röntgen,
Schrödinger, U Thant (United Nations), Thomson (J. J.), Tolman, Watson, Welch, Wilson, and Zewail.

A. H. Zewail. Franklin's Vision,
Speech at the Annual General Meeting of the American

Philosophical Society in celebration of the Franklin Tercentenary,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 27, 2006.


On this special occasion of the Tercentenary, I am
especially delighted to speak in honor of a polymath and an
American icon, Benjamin Franklin. Since his death in
1790, Franklin has been revered, memorialized, and made into an educational,
financial, and political icon. Through his collective work this
sage has climbed to the apex of human endeavor in the sciences, public
service, and statesmanship in international relations. Such great heights
for a man of wit and wisdom are reached by very few in the world, both
then and now...

A. H. Zewail. Light and Life,
Ninth Rajiv Gandhi Science and Technology Lecture, Rajiv Gandhi Institute
for Contemporary Studies, Bangalore, India, October 17, 2002.

Scientific research is the subject of this lecture, but I
wish to focus here on one of its pillars—the value of curiosity-driven research and its impact on our life, the life of
the "haves" and "have-nots". For this scientific endeavour,
I will demonstrate my point from the study of one phenomenon
that has occupied the thinking of humans
throughout history—it is the phenomenon of light. What
is light?

A. H. Zewail. Time's Mysteries and Miracles: Consonance with Physical and Life Sciences,
Albert Einstein Public Lecture, IIT,

New Delhi, India, October 22, 2002.



Ever since the dawn of history, humans have been the benefactors of time's miracles,
but at the same time they have been baffled by time's mysteries. More than six
millennia ago, the philosophy and measurement of time occupied the minds of
scholars in the land of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and, even today we struggle with the
meaning of time. In this overview, I present some concepts and techniques developed
in the science and technology of time, and an exposé of some of the
mysteries and
miracles that are in harmony with physical and life sciences...

A. H. Zewail. It is Possible,
One Hundred Reasons to be a Scientist, 2nd ed., ICTP, Trieste, 2005,

p. 260.


On the banks of the Nile, the Rosetta branch, I was
born in Damanhur, the "City of Horus", only 60 km
from Alexandria. In retrospect, it is remarkable that my
childhood origins were flanked by two great places—Rosetta, the city where the famous Stone was
discovered, and Alexandria, the home of ancient
learning...

G. K. Drayna and D. J. Flannigan; Mentor: A. H. Zewail. Ultrafast Electron Microscopy: Watching Atoms Move and Crystals Melt,
Caltech Undergrad. Res. J. 8, 36 (2008).


For decades, researchers have relied on static images provided by electron
microscopy and static diffraction patterns provided by X-ray crystallography to
infer how a system operates. The major drawback to these otherwise very powerful
techniques is that no direct experimental evidence is gathered about the
structure of the transition states of the system. That is, these techniques can only
provide information about the three spatial dimensions; while information about
how the system behaves in the fourth dimension—time—remains a mystery.
Therefore, to overcome this fundamental problem, a methodology that can access
all four dimensions simultaneously must be realized and demonstrated. The
development of such a technology would mark a great day in the advancement of
human knowledge. Fortunately, that day has arrived with the advent of Ultrafast
Electron Microscopy (UEM)...

J. S Baskin and A. H. Zewail. Freezing Atoms in Motion,
J. Chem. Educ. 78, 737 (2001).


The concept of the atom, proposed
24 centuries ago and rejected by Aristotle,
was born on a purely philosophical basis,
surely without anticipating some of the
20th century's most triumphant scientific
discoveries. Atoms can now be seen, observed
in motion, and manipulated...

J. S. Baskin and A. H. Zewail. Freezing Time—In a Femtosecond,
Sci. Spectra 14, 62 (1998).


With ultrashort pulses of laser light, it has become possible to observe
physical, chemical and biological changes with a resolution of femtoseconds, 15
orders of magnitude faster than the human heart beat, reaching the scale of
atomic motion, spatial and temporal...

A. H. Zewail. The
Birth of Molecules,
Sci. Am. 263, 76 (1990).



In 1872 railroad magnate Leland
Stanford wagered $25,000 that a
galloping horse, at some point in
stride, lifts all four hooves off the
ground. To prove it, Stanford employed
English photographer Eadweard Muybridge.
After many attempts, Muybridge
developed a camera shutter that
opened and closed for only two thousandths
of a second, enabling him to
capture on film a horse flying through
the air.
During the past century, all scientific
disciplines from astrophysics to zoology
have exploited high-speed photography
to revolutionize understanding
of animal and mechanical motions that
are quicker than the eye can follow...

M. Gruebele and A. H. Zewail. Ultrafast Reaction Dynamics,
Phys. Today 43, 24 (1990).


With new laser techniques and with gas
phase and molecular beam
experiments, it is now possible to
determine the ultrafast motion in
isolated chemical reactions: chemistry
on the 10^-13-second time scale...

A. H. Zewail. Laser Selective Chemistry: Is It Possible?,
Phys. Today 33, 27 (1980).



With sufficiently brief and intense radiation, properly tuned
to specific resonances, we may be able to fulfill a chemist's dream,
to break particular selected bonds in large molecules...

D. Baltimore and A. H. Zewail. We Need a Science White House, Wall
Street Journal, April 17, 2008, p. A18.


Tomorrow
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain should have been going
toe-to-toe in a televised science debate. All three were invited by a
bipartisan group of Nobel laureates and other scholars called
ScienceDebate 2008 to step on stage at the Franklin Institute in
Philadelphia and explain how they will ensure that America continues to
dominate the sciences. Leading in scientific research and advancement
is an essential element to our future prosperity, health and national
defense...

A. H. Zewail. We Arabs Must Wage a New Form of Jihad, Independent, August 24, 2006.


The
cataclysmic wars in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq have uncovered the
reality of Arab unity and plight, and the collective conscience of
international society. It is abundantly clear that the Arab people must
themselves build a new system for a new future. The current state, as
judged by a low GDP, high level of illiteracy, and deteriorating
performance in education and science, is neither in consonance with
their hearts and minds nor does it provide for their political,
economic, and educational aspirations...

A. H. Zewail. The West and Islam Need not be in Conflict, Independent, October 24, 2006.

Five
years after September 11, we must ask, can western wars solve the
so-called global conflict with the Islamic world? The answer, in my
opinion, is no. A far better state of world peace would be achieved if
the West would make a serious commitment to the just resolution of
conflicts, and be genuinely involved, using a fraction of war costs, in
building bridges to progress and peace with an understanding of the
profound role of pride and faith in the lives of Muslims...

A. H. Zewail. Mediterranean Scientopolitics, Science 321, 1417 (2008).



On this year's Bastille Day in July, the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, inaugurated
a new initiative for uniting the Mediterranean South with Europe in general, and France
in particular. The aim of the Mediterranean Union (MU), an analogue of the post-Cold War
European Union (EU), is to "lay the foundations of a political, economic and cultural union
founded on the principles of strict equality." Comprising 27 EU members and states from the
Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans, the MU would in principle unite close to 800 million
people. In June, a meeting was held at the Institut de France with representation from many
academies, scientists, and politicians to discuss possible cooperative programs. The goals
expressed at the meeting are admirable; however, the MU's motives need to be clearly defined,
as the issues for the MU are very different from those for the EU. Most important, thus far missing
in the fabric of the former is an explicit role for education and science...

A. H. Zewail. The Future of Our World, 5th U Thant
Distinguished Lecture, United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan, April 15, 2003.



Over the last century, our world has experienced at times a "beautiful age"
with promises of peace and prosperity, but then some imposing forces changed
the entire landscape. History reminds us of recurrences, and the current state
of the world is not so different that we may ask—what political and economic
forces cause such disorder in a world seeking prosperity through globalization
and revolutionary advances in technology? Here we will address the need for a
rational world vision that must take into account developments in the
population of the have-nots and dialogues of cultures. It is a vision of
economic, political, religious, and cultural dimensions in world affairs. Only
with such a vision can we shape a bright future for our
world...

A. H. Zewail. Dialogue
of Civilizations: Making History Through a New World Vision,
UNESCO Public Address, Paris, France, April 20, 2002.


The 2002 UNESCO conference, "Science et la quête du sens" in Paris,
was devoted to science and the quest for meaning; the English title,
"Science and the Spiritual Quest", emphasizes the spiritual dimension,
a realm beyond science. Similarly, this chapter, which is based on my
lecture given at the conference, is concerned with dimensions beyond
science—our human existence in civilizations and cultures that may or
may not be in a state of clash...

A. H. Zewail. Science
in the Developing World,
TWAS Newslett. 14, 23 (2002).


I am pleased to have this opportunity to share with you some personal
reflections on current issues which I believe may well be at the core
of world peace and stability. Science education and development through
science are the subject of my presentation, and I thought I would use
my personal journey through two cultures, one currently developing and
the other developed, to address issues of concern and what should be
done to achieve progress...

A. H. Zewail. Science for the Have-Nots,
Nature 410, 741 (2001).


Only a fifth of the population enjoys the benefit of life in the
'developed world', and the gap between the haves and have-nots
continues to increase, threatening stability. According to the World
Bank, of the 6 billion people on Earth, 4.8 billion live in developing
countries, 3 billion live on less than US$2 a day, and 1.2 billion live
on less than $1 a day, which defines the absolute poverty standard; 1.5
billion people do not have access to clean water...

The Ahmed Zewail Foundation for Knowledge and
Development was established through the American
University in Cairo as a non-profit, non-political organization with the purpose of
disseminating useful knowledge. The Foundation currently provides prizes for
young people who "demonstrate extraordinary commitment to the
pursuit of scientific inquiry and the affirmation of humanistic values". In addition, at the Opera House one
prize is given annualy for outstanding achievements and creativity in
the arts.

Two major Zewail prizes have also been established for outstanding
achievements in science and technology, one by the American Chemical Society
and the other by Elsevier.
The prizes honor scientists from around the world for their
creative contrubutions.