In his death we have lost a great man who made significant contribution to human civilisation
TURBAT: The Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian-American Chemist, Ahmed Hassan Zewail, a science and technology adviser to president Barack Obama and the man who is known to be the first US science representative to the Middle East, died on August 2nd last year at the age of 70 in the United States.
He was the author of some 600 scientific articles and 16 books and is also credited with developing a new research field dubbed four-dimensional electron microscopy. But when Zewail, a 23-year-old Egyptian chemist, arrived at the University of Pennsylvania for the pursuit of doctoral studies in 1969, he knew very little.
On his initial days, he didn’t know how to use a refrigerator and his university colleagues wondered if he was deserving of being in the chemistry lab. However, Zewail achieved what many of his colleagues couldn’t through sheer determination and hard work. He went on to become part of a US mission in 2010 and was appointed by the president of the US to visit countries in North Africa and Southeast Asia.
In his death we have lost a great man who made significant contribution to human civilisation. He has not only proved to be one of the greatest scientists the world has ever produced but also made many realise that anything is achievable only if one believes in himself or herself.
Zeeshan Baloch
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2018.
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