When they called me with the Nobel call from Secretary General of the Swedish Academy it was twenty minutes to six and he said well that was well hope I’m not disturbing you but I am the Secretary General of the Swedish Academy.
AHMED ZEWAILI am not one of the new media experts working all the time with my computers and the PowerPoint’s and things of that sort.
More Ahmed Zewail Quotes
-
-
Everybody thinks some times that science is done as a master plan and that somebody like me came from Mars and figured out everything and so on, but that’s really not the way it worked.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
Although the Nasser revolution of 1952 was secular, the culture remained deeply religious – but it was a faith of moderation and tolerance.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
I thought in my Nobel Lecture I pointed that I was delighted that the Swedish Academy of Science did not quote anything about my current work right now, because the current work that my group is focusing on is actually both the time resolve.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
I came from Egypt and I owe Egypt a lot to what I am now.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
And the other thing also which I’m hoping for is that the government in Egypt is willing and interested in promoting science and technology and this is an ideal time now to be able to do something.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
As a child, I thought I was immortal, but now I recognize how limited a time we all have. As a child, success meant scoring A on every exam, but now I take it to mean good health, close family and friends, achieve- ments in my work, and helping others.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
Of course you can imagine I was frozen in time when he said that but then he made a very famous statement, something to the effect that this is the last 20 minutes of peace of your life.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
Invest in basic research and recruit the best minds.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
Women made up nearly half my class at university, and my senior academic adviser there was a woman. In Alexandria, my friends were Christians and Muslims.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
But the universe at large is full of questions that we still don’t know anything about and there will be always young people brilliant who are going to make new discoveries.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
When I was a child, I thought of my Delta town as the center of the universe, but now I realize how little I know about the universe.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
One of the things I enjoy most is to be left alone with a book.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
There are many, many books I’ve read and I think this is quite naïve actually because we all just try to uncover something.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
If you like, there is a Guinness time. The reason for that it’s fundamental. It is not that we have to keep shortening the time. It turns out all molecular and biological systems have speeds of the atoms move inside them.
AHMED ZEWAIL -
I found with my students they don’t necessarily look at journals any more, but they print right away from the internet what’s relevant to what’s he doing you see.
AHMED ZEWAIL