The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1999

 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Professor Ahmed H. Zewail for his studies of transition states of chemical reactions by femtosecond spectroscopy.

Ahmed Zewail receives the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for being the first to reveal the decisive moments of a chemical reaction – the moments when chemical bonds are broken and formed.
     Zewail’s technique uses what can be thought of as the world’s fastest camera. The “shutter speed” of such a camera must be extremely high since molecules are very small (about 10-9m) and move extremely rapidly (1 000 m/s). To obtain a sharp “image” of the molecules in the course of a chemical reaction requires a femtosecond (10-15s) shutter speed.

To cite this section
MLA style: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1999. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Thu. 28 Nov 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1999/8654-the-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-1999-1999/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Nobel Prizes and laureates

Nobel Prizes 2024

Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.

See them all presented here.

Illustration

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.