“The U.S. can still maintain research institutions, such as Caltech, that are the envy of the world, yet it would be hubristic and naive to think that this position is sustainable without investing in science education and basic research.”

Egyptian-American chemist

Ahmed Hassan Zewail was an Egyptian-American chemist, 1946 to 2016, known for his work in femtochemistry and for earning the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is often called the father of femtochemistry. At the California Institute of Technology, he taught chemistry and physics and became the first Caltech faculty member appointed to the Linus Pauling Chair of Chemical Physics. He also directed the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology. His reputation rests on research that opened a new way to study chemical change on extremely short timescales.