Dr Zewail's research involves, in effect, taking high-speed snapshots of chemical reactions.

ECONOMIST: The 1999 Nobel prizes

The Awards jury was chaired by Professor Ahmed Zewail, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology.

UNESCO: UK Scientist second in two years to receive UNESCO award

The light does not form an image of the reacting molecules, but its interaction with those molecules specifically, which frequencies are absorbed, and how strongly allows Dr Zewail and his followers to work out how the molecules distort and reorganise themselves during the course of a reaction.

ECONOMIST: The 1999 Nobel prizes