Zewail
Zewail
Z E WA I L
PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY VOL. 162, NO. 2, JUNE 2018
biographical memoirs
I
t is often proclaimed that a stylist is someone who does and says
things in memorable ways. From an analysis of his experimental
prowess, his written contributions, his lectures, and even from the
details of the illustrations he used in his published papers or during his
lectures to scientific and other audiences, Ahmed Zewail, by this or any
other definition, was a stylist par excellence.
For more than a quarter of a century, I interacted with Ahmed (and
members of his family) very regularly. Sometimes he and I spoke several
times a week during long-distance calls. Despite our totally different
backgrounds we became the strongest of friends, and we got on with
one another like the proverbial house on fire. We collaborated scientifi-
cally and we adjudicated one another’s work, as well as that of others.
We frequently exchanged culturally interesting stories. We each relished
the challenge of delivering popular lectures. In common with very
many others, I deem him to be unforgettable, for a variety of different
reasons. He was one of the intellectually ablest persons that I have ever
met. He possessed elemental energy. He executed a succession of
brilliant experiments. And, almost single-handedly, he created the
subject of femtochemistry, with all its magnificent manifestations and
ramifications.
From the time we first began to exchange ideas, I felt a growing
affinity for his personality and attitude. This was reinforced when I
told him that, ever since I was a teenager, I had developed a deep
interest in Egyptology and a love for modern Egypt. On several
occasions during my visits to Cairo, we were able to spend time
together in that magical city. At first, from the early 2000s onward, we
were often accompanied by a lady who was a professor of chemistry at
the American University in Cairo (AUC), Jehane Ragai, who later (in
2010) became my wife. Only a few years ago, Ahmed, his wife Dema,
Jehane, and I had dinner together in Cairo, at about the time when the
constructional work for the Zewail City of Science and Technology
was getting underway. Happy days!
I welcome this opportunity to sing Ahmed’s praises, and I begin by
drawing attention to his Nobel Lecture, “Femtochemistry: Atomic-
Scale Dynamics of the Chemical Bond Using Ultrafast Lasers.” The
1999 reprint from Les Prix Nobel consists of 100 pages of extraordi-
narily beautiful vignettes and illustrations: there are 36 figures, most of
them consisting of color illustrations that could be incorporated,
without change, into standard university texts. The whole article is
redolent of deep scholarship; it mingles historical appreciation with
frontier scientific achievements, and some of the portrayals in his
article, typified here by Figure 1, are worthy of being used as tapestries
on the walls of science museums and other temples of scholarship.
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ahmed h. zewail 195
Figure 1. A figure from Ahmed Zewail’s Nobel Lecture, reprinted from Les Prix
Nobel (1999).
Linus Pauling, in 1948, had described the nature of the forces between
biological macromolecules; and that yet another Caltech scientist,
Murray Gell-Mann, had spoken on elementary particles in the 1960s.
To convince him further that he should accept an invitation to
perform, I also mentioned that other famous Americans, like Margaret
Mead, A. H. Compton, Roald Hoffmann, and Edwin Hubble had given
Discourses at the Royal Institution. Ahmed agreed. And, in early 1991,
it was a pleasure to entertain Dema and Ahmed in the Director’s Flat
for dinner before whisking him away to relax in solitary confinement
in the Lecturer’s Room prior to his appearance in the Lecture Theatre.
(Faraday believed that, before delivering any important lecture, the
speaker should relax on his or her own in a quiet room for at least 15
minutes. That tradition is still maintained.)
When Ahmed entered the darkened theatre, he was overwhelmed
by the magnitude of the audience. The auditorium was, in English
parlance, jam-packed. His opening words were, “This large crowd
must be under the impression that the Egyptian speaker tonight was to
be Omar Sharif!” He proceeded to give an enthralling account of his
work, in such charming and exhilarating terms that he brought
members of his audience almost to the brink of ecstasy. The first slide
that Ahmed showed that night transported the audience to ancient
Egypt and reminded them that Egypt is the “cradle of civilization.”
198 biographical memoirs
Figure 3. The first slide shown by Ahmed Zewail at his Friday Evening Discourse
at the Royal Institution, April 1991.
For me personally, Franklin is a hero, not only for his unique and
remarkable scientific contributions in the 1700s, but also for his
humanitarian vision and his belief in the power of learning. He
best used his own power as an accomplished scientist to influence
world politics and peace. Perhaps the greatest of all of his achieve-
ments was his efforts to secure America’s independence and peace
with England. Today, it is Franklin’s vision, with his spirit of
compromise and eloquence, that we need in order to reach a
dialogue and peace in our troubled world.
Figure 4. Ahmed Zewail, Sir Michael Atiyah, and Sir John Meurig Thomas at the
APS Franklin Tercentenary Celebrations, April 2006.
Figure 5. Ahmed Zewail, Jehane Ragai, and John Meurig Thomas at the University
of Cambridge, December 2007. By kind permission of Nathan Pitt, University of
Cambridge.
Figure 6. Ahmed Zewail’s suggested framework for our joint book, 4D Electron
Microscopy: Imaging in Space and Time (Imperial College Press, 2010).
Iraqi-born Al Hazen had invented the camera obscura and that this
Arab scientist’s “Book of Optics” greatly influenced later European
scientists, such as Galileo. He also drew to my attention that, in his
beloved Alexandria, Aristarchus had suggested that the earth circulates
the sun some 18 centuries before Copernicus. Ahmed also recalled that
Eratosthenes, the librarian in Alexandria, proved that the earth was
spherical and calculated its circumference with amazing accuracy 1,700
years before Columbus sailed on his epic voyage. Ahmed also rejoiced
that it was in his native city, Alexandria, that Hero invented the
principle of the jet engine (long before Frank Whittle).
While working alongside Ahmed, and during my continual interac-
tion with him over the years, I also discovered that his knowledge of
the fundamentals of physics and chemistry were exceptional. (I did not
know about the Kapitza-Dirac effect—even though it originated in
Cambridge—until I met Ahmed). He executed his work in an enviably
dispatchful manner, and each paper or book was the product of intense
contemplation and lucubration.
Looking back again at the writing of our monograph on 4D
electron microscopy, I vividly recall the rapidity with which Ahmed
picked up new ideas. I had been working in chemical electron micros-
copy for some 40 years. Concepts and ideas that took me a fair time
fully to comprehend were acquired by Ahmed as swiftly as the blinking
of the biblical eye. When one contemplates the contents of his most
recent monograph, 4D Visualization of Matter, it is staggering to think
that he mastered so comprehensively and so expeditiously the multiple
facets of “static” electron microscopy, and added to them so magnifi-
cently the time domain. I cherish the fact that, in a small way, I helped
him conquer new vistas in temporal and spatial electron microscopy,
and I was touched when, in his “Acknowledgements” to 4D Visualisa-
tion of Matter he remarked, “Besides our intellectual bonds and
common interests, John was the first to see clearly the significance of
the 4D imaging developments over the past decade.”
During his after-dinner speech on the occasion of my 75th birthday,
seated close to the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel (Figure 7)1,
Ahmed said of me: “He has written many obituaries and given eulogies
of distinguished scientists to salute their contributions to science and
society. I have repeatedly told John to write my obituary in advance. . . .”
There is a sad irony associated with the fact that, owing to a favor-
able dispensation of providence, I was, in effect, thanks to the
Figure 7. Ahmed Zewail, Angela Merkel, and John Meurig Thomas at John
Meurig Thomas’s celebratory dinner in Peterhouse, Cambridge on December 15,
2007. By kind permission of the University of Cambridge.
Elected 1993
Author’s Note