People: Femtochemistry Researcher Is Chosen To Receive $100,000 Israeli Wolf Prize in Chemistry, Former Astronaut, NASA Head Appointed Director of Georgia Tech Research Institute, Obituary: Clinton Woolsey

Ahmed H. Zewail, a chemical physics professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, has received the 1993 Wolf Prize in Chemistry from the Israel-based Wolf Foundation. Since 1978, the Wolf Foundation has been granting $100,000 prizes for individual achievements in the fields of agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics, and the arts. This year, the prizes will be presented on May 16 by Israeli President Chaim Herzog at the Knesset building in Jerusalem. Zewail is being honored for his contributions to the ultrafast study of chemical dynamics on femtosecond timescales (Kathryn Phillips, The Scientist, May 29, 1989, page 17). One femtosecond is equivalent to one thousandth-mil- lionth-millionth of a second. In femtochemistry, he says, "basically, you're photographing snapshots of the atoms and molecules in the intercourse of a chemical reaction in real time. This has to be done in femtoseconds using ultrafast, pulsating lasers and molecular beams." A summary of his work can be found in Science (A.H. Zewail, "Laser femtochemistry," 242[4885]: 1645-53, 1988). The Caltech laboratory, staffed by about 20 graduate students and postdocs, has five laser facilities--each working on the same research but from a different perspective. Operating expenses for the high-tech equipment are close to $1 million a year. Zewail characterizes femto-chemistry as a "field of study that is exploding." His lab's most cited paper (M. Dantus, et al., "Real- time femtosecond probing of transition states in chemical reactions," Journal of Chemical Physics, 87[4]: 2395-7, 1987) has been cited in more than 100 subsequent papers to date. The next step for Zewail's lab is to advance photoimaging techniques. Currently, he is using spectroscopy, which reveals the atomic "fingerprints" of a molecule's motion. Zewail says he now is trying to use electron diffraction to create direct imaging of the molecules. "With electron imaging, it is like taking an X-ray image of the molecule itself. You are seeing the individual arrangements and structures ... just like you would take a picture," he says. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1946, Zewail started work at Caltech in 1976 as an assistant professor. He received his bachelor's degree in 1967 from Alexandria University and his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1974 in the laboratory of Robin M. Hochstrasser, another pioneer in the field. Zewail says that, as a native of an Arab country, he feels no uneasiness about receiving an Israeli prize. "This is an important international prize that honors work for the betterment of science and the humanities in the world," he says. "There is a conflict right now between the two countries regarding the rights of the Palestinians and regarding peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Israelis. But I don't feel that politics and science have to be mixed." He says winning the Wolf Prize has made two important impressions. First, he says, "there is nothing more satisfying for a scientist than seeing that the work that we have spent 20 years of our lives on is being recognized internationally. And second, it's just so wonderful to see that [my] own colleagues can appreciate the work that's done by my students, postdocs, and myself." Richard H. Truly, former astronaut and ex-administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has been appointed director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). He began in the position on December 1. Located on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GTRI conducts research and development programs in 13 different areas of science, including aerospace science, infrared and electro-optics technology, radar, and environmental sciences. The institute's main customer is the United States Department of Defense. Truly stepped into his new position with the idea that some bold avenues should be explored in order to strengthen the institute's current programs and effectively compete in the 1990s. "There are clearly three major thrusts that become quite obvious," he says. "One is to keep the defense-related reputation. Second, to expand our reputation in civilian technologies and applications. This means to make sure GTRI's research can have value not only to the defense-related work that the organization has been known for in the past, but also civilian technologies and applications. "For example, GTRI is extremely well-known for its support of defense electronics, like radar. But we can easily move into civilian technologies with the work being done in environmental sciences and advanced transportation control systems for air and ground traffic." Truly says his third area of focus will be to establish closer links between GTRI and the surrounding colleges within Georgia Tech, as well as "centers of excellence," also located on the Georgia Tech campus. For example, GTRI and these facilities could share joint faculty appointments and work together on specific projects, he says. Truly joined the U.S. Navy in 1959 and retired as a vice admiral in 1963. He worked on the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory Program before joining NASA in 1969. His major achievements as an astronaut include working as the capsule communicator to Skylab and the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, as well as serving as commander of the space shuttle Columbia's second flight in 1981 and Challenger's third flight in 1983. Following the destruction of the Challenger in 1986, Truly served as associate administrator of NASA's Office of Space Flight until 1989. He was NASA administrator from April 1989 to March 1992. Truly graduated from Georgia Tech in 1959 with a degree in aeronautical engineering. He says returning to a college campus provides some unique personal challenges. "I've spent most of my career in federal government organizations, specifically the U.S. Navy and NASA, and these cultures and that of a college campus are quite different," he says. "I'm finding this very free and open, and a bit more unstructured than I'm used to. So there is an adjustment for me to learn about this culture and make sure I fit into it. It's a good challenge." Clinton N. Woolsey, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, died January 14 in Madison. He was 88 years old. Woolsey was the school's Charles Sumner Slichter Professor of Neurophysiology, a position he held from 1948 to 1975; he became an emeritus professor in 1975. His research focused on the sensory perception of the brain in both humans and lower animals. Woolsey was a cofounder of the school's Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1933 and then joined the faculty there. He moved to Wisconsin in 1948.

People: Femtochemistry Researcher Is Chosen To Receive $100,000 Israeli Wolf Prize in Chemistry, Former Astronaut, NASA Head Appointed Director of Georgia Tech Research Institute, Obituary: Clinton Woolsey

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