Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian-American chemist Ahmed Zewail, a science and technology advisor to President Barack Obama and the first US science envoy to the Middle East, died on Tuesday in the United States, his spokesman told Egyptian state TV.
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Well-known as the father of femtochemistry, he won the 1999 Nobel Prize for his work on the study of chemical reactions.
The renowned chemist won the Nobel Prize in 1999 for his developments in femtoscience, which made it possible to the observe atoms in motion at an extremely small time scale.
“Zewail will always be a symbol for a scientist who devoted his life honourable, faithfully, and sincerely to scientific research…to provide a better future for humanity”, said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in a statement.
Zewail was born in Damanhour but grew up in Alexandria, where he graduated from Alexandria University before leaving Egypt to study in the United States, where he earned a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.
His death on Tuesday was announced by the Californian Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he had worked since 1976. He was also showered with honors from around the world, including France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur, and Egypt’s Order of the Grand Collar of the Nile. He was member in science academies and societies around the globe.
Caltech president Thomas F. Rosenbaum said in an announcement on the institution’s web site: “Ahmed was the quintessential scholar and global citizen”.
He was outspoken about the political situations in his home country.
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo joins Egyptians, Americans, and friends around the world in mourning the passing of Ahmed Zewail, a leading contributor to the world of science.
During his stellar career, he was appointed as US President Barack Obama’s science advisor as well as his first science ambassador to the Middle East.
“Knowledge acquisition is a concept that is woven into the fabric of Islam and was the springboard of success of its empire centuries ago”, Zewail wrote in April in an article on the institute’s website.
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He is survived by his wife, Dema, and four children.
