Nobel Reading
On 12 October 1999, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced
that the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry would be awarded to Professor
Ahmed H. Zewail, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
USA for showing that it is possible with rapid laser techniques to see
how atoms in a molecule move during a chemical reaction.
> See
press release
The release makes reference to an IUPAC book, published within the
Chemistry for the 21st Century Monographs Series: Ultrafast
Processes in Chemistry and Photobiology, El-Sayed, M.A.; Tanaka,
I. and Molin Y. (eds), Blackwell Science, 1995 [ISBN 0-86542-893X]
In Chapter 1 of this book, Professor Zewail discussed different exciting
and imaginative experiments on the femtodynamics of molecules energized
by short coherent laser pulses. He gives an excellent expos� of the
concepts involved, the new techniques developed by his group and some
of the most creative applications of pico- and femtosecond lasers.
Ultrafast
Processes in Chemistry and Photobiology, edited by M.A. El-Sayed,
I. Tanaka, and Y. Molin, presents expert contributions summarizing the
state-of-the-art in one of the most active research areas in chemistry
today. Chapters were written by P.F. Barbara, P. Cong, K.B. Eisenthal,
G.R. Fleming, R.M. Hochstrasser, D.M. Jonas, T. Kobayashi, V.S. Letokhov,
F.H. Long, R.A. Mathies, J.D. Simon, A. Terasaki, E. Tokunaga, P.K.
Walhout, Y. Yan, K. Yoshihara, and A.H. Zewail.
The goal of the 'Chemistry
for the 21st Century' Series is to explore areas of active research
in chemistry today which are likely to have a profound effect on the
science of chemistry in the future - A noble intention with Nobel recognition.
> See
series titles
