Nobel Laureate to Present 2007 Eberly Family Distinguished Lecture in Science on 27 April

11 April 2007—Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry, professor of physics, and director of the Physical Biology Center at the California Institute of Technology, will present the Eberly Family Distinguished Lecture in Science on 27 April 2007 at 4:00 p.m. in the HUB Auditorium on the University Park campus. This free public lecture, titled "Mysteries of Time," is sponsored by the Eberly College of Science.

Zewail was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of "his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy." He uses extremely short-duration laser flashes on a scale of femtoseconds-one femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second-to observe the movement of individual atoms on the time scale in which chemical reactions actually occur. This technique allows studies akin to the "slow-motion replay" in television sports. This development holds great promise in the areas of technology and the life sciences.

Zewail's current research interests include the biological sciences, the complexity of molecular function, and the new development of ultrafast diffraction for the imaging of transient structures in space and time with atomic-scale resolution. He is particularly interested in developing new concepts and methodologies for the understanding of the molecular behavior of complex chemical and biological systems.

Zewail is a fellow of the American Physical Society, Saint Catherine's College at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Society of India, the Sydney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, the African Academy of Sciences in Kenya, the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom, Saint Catherine's College at the Univeristiy of Oxford in the United Kingdom, the Literary and Historical Society of University College in Ireland, and the Academy of Sciences of Malaysia. He also is a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.

Zewail is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Third World Academy of Sciences in Italy, the scientific research society Sigma Xi, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the European Academy of Sciences in France, the American Philosophical Society, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Achievement, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of London in the United Kingdom. He is foreign member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, European Academy of Sciences in Belgium, and the French Academy of Sciences. He is an honorary foreign member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and is an honorary member of the Board of Advisors for the U.S. National Society of High School Scholars.

Zewail received a bachelor's degreee with honors and a master's degree from Alexandria University in Egypt in 1967 and 1969, respectively. He recieved a doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974. In addition to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999, he has been recognized with a number of international awards, including the Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry in 1997, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1993, the King Faisal International Prize in Science in 1989, the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute in 1998, the Leonardo Da Vinci Award of Excellence in France in 1995, the Albert Einstein World Award, and the Order of the Grand Collar of the Nile-Egypt's highest state honor. He was named the first Linus Pauling Chair at the California Institute of Technology in 1990. A postage stamp with Zewail's portrait was issued by Egypt in 1998 to honor his contributions to science and humanity and a stamp named "The Fourth Pyramid" was issued in 1999." He holds thirty honorary doctoral degrees from around the world.

For more information about the lecture, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Alumni Relations and Development at 863-4683 or 1-800-297-1429.

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