Nobel World
The Voyage
<blockquote>
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....
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
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"...
</blockquote>
Conferences and Collaborations
<blockquote>
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...
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
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...
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
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...
</blockquote>
Science and Technology
New Centers
<blockquote>
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...</blockquote>
Back to the Future
<blockquote>
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...</blockquote>
<blockquote>
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...</blockquote>