Category: Awards
IUPAC publication provides 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.
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 exposé 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.