Dr. Ahmed H. Zewail has won the 1999 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his  groundbreaking work in viewing and studying chemical reactions at the atomic level as they occur. The announcement was made today by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 

“The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences citation:  For his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond  spectroscopy”. 

This year's laureate in Chemistry is being rewarded for his pioneering investigation of fundamental chemical reactions, using ultra-short laser flashes, on the time scale on which the reactions actually  occur. Professor Zewail's contributions have brought about a revolution in chemistry and adjacent  sciences, since this type of investigation allows us to understand and predict important reactions. 

The academy said Zewail's work in the late 1980s led to the birth of femtochemistry, the use of high-speed cameras to monitor chemical reactions at a scale of femtoseconds. 

We have reached the end of the road. No chemical reactions take place faster than this," the academy said 

"We can now see the movements of individual atoms as we imagine them. They are no longer invisible," the academy said. 

A U.S. and Egyptian citizen, Zewail has held the Linus Pauling chair of chemical physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena since 1990. 

The prizes, worth $960,000, are presented on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite who established the prizes. 

Mubarak congratulates Zewail 

President Hosni Mubarak sent a cable of congratulations to the renowned Egyptian physicist Ahmad Zewail on winning the Nobel Prize for chemistry. 

President Mubarak voiced his pride that one of Egypt`s exemplary sons has been honoured by the international community and wished Zewail further success. 

Dr. Zewail was also given a warm public and official welcome at his home-town in the Delta, where his name was given to major institutions and public facilities, in recognition of his outstanding achievements and filial gratitude to his home-country.