Ahmed H. Zewail, Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry & Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, will be honored with the 2011 Priestley Medal for developing "ultrafast-motion" imaging.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) will present the award to Zewail. The award will be presented at the ACS' 241st National Meeting & Exposition, which will be held in the Anaheim Marriott Hotel.
Using the imaging technique, the fundamental processes involved in materials science, biology and chemistry can be studied.
Zewail conducted research in the field of femtochemistry, which involves the use of special lasers to observe ultrafast chemical reactions and measure them on the femtosecond timescale. Zewail’s laser technique is capable of capturing the ultrafast motion of molecules and atoms when they go through chemical reactions to create medicines, plastics and gasoline. Zewail's camera closely follows the complexities of ultrafast chemical reactions.
Zewail uses a high-speed camera, which utilizes laser technology to produce light that lasts some millionth of a billionth of a second. He was able to capture the molecules’ movements as they reacted with one another.
Zewail and his team have conceptualized a new field called four-dimensional electron microscopy. Under this technique, both biological and material cells can be viewed clearly in time and space.
Source: http://portal.acs.org/