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Ahmed Zewail

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Scientist

The Resume

    (February 26, 1946-August 2, 2016)
    Born in Damanhour, Egypt
    Became a naturalized US citizen (1982)
    Linus Pauling Chair of Chemical Physics at CalTech (1990-2016)
    Member of Barack Obama's Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (2009-13)
    Pioneer of 'femtochemistry': the use of laser pulses to observe chemical reactions over durations of femtoseconds
    One femtosecond = 1/1,000,000,000,000,000th of a second (or one millionth of a billionth of a second)
    Won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1999)

Why he might be annoying:

    He said about one childhood experiment, 'I still remember it vividly, not only for the science, but also the danger of burning down our house.'
    He claimed to have 'no political ambition' but joined a committee to reform the Egyptian constitution (2011).
    He wrote an op-ed piece complaining about the Egyptian government spending the $1.5 billion in annual aid it receives from America on military equipment instead of science and education, then a year later wrote another editorial urging the US not to cut aid to Egypt after the coup that overthrew Mohamed Morsi. (Or, in other words, 'Please keep sending us money to waste.')

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was the first Arab to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences.
    The Egyptian government felt so threatened by his popularity that it banned people holding dual citizenship from running in the 2012 Presidential election in order to disqualify him.
    An NPR reporter said about meeting him in Cairo, 'It's like being in public with Bono and Einstein combined.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 18 Votes: 61.11% Annoying