Innovation
29 September 2008
Egyptian American Wins Highest U.S. Science Honor
Mostafa El-Sayed praised for contributions to nanotechnology
Washington — Chemist Mostafa El-Sayed has received the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest science award, for his work on small compounds known as nanomaterials.
He received the award in a September 29 ceremony at the White House.
“I am very fortunate and lucky to be doing science in America. There are so many excellent people doing science all over this country,” said El-Sayed, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and director of the Laser Dynamics Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He is also noted for his collaboration with scientists in Egypt.
Born and raised in Egypt, El-Sayed completed his undergraduate training at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. He came to the United States for graduate school and later joined the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles in 1961.
“We're proud to honor a new generation of people who have strived for excellence, people whose discoveries have changed America and the world,” President Bush said at the ceremony. “This is an important day for our country because it reminds people that innovation and science are important for our future, and that good education is important for that future, as well.”
Congress established the National Medal of Science in 1959. The medal is bestowed annually by the president for outstanding contributions to the physical, biological and engineering sciences. El-Sayed is one of eight winners of the 2007 award.
The United States has recognized the scientific achievements of citizens of diverse national origins. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy awarded the first medal to Theodore Von Kármán, an aeronautical engineer who was born and raised in Hungary.
PIONEER IN NANOTECHNOLOGY
The field of nanotechnology focuses on exploiting the unique and often surprising properties of materials at nanoscale sizes, one thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. At that scale, solid objects might become liquid, opaque materials transparent, or an insulator could become a conductor of electricity.
At nanosizes, platinum becomes a better catalyst (a material that speeds up chemical reactions but is not consumed in the process). El-Sayed showed that the shape of a nanoparticle influences catalytic activity as well.
The production of many industrial chemicals involves catalysis. Exploiting nanoparticle shape to generate more efficient catalysts could improve manufacturing efficiency and make numerous products easier and cheaper to produce.
In 1996, El-Sayed and his colleagues developed a method of generating platinum nanoparticles of different shapes and then demonstrated that the shape (cube or pyramid) of these nanoparticles influences their catalytic activity.
This method subsequently was extended to other metals, allowing scientists to study how shape affects the chemical and electrical properties of a variety of nanomaterials. Since then, scientists have generated metals in a variety of shapes: nanospheres, nanorods and even nanorice (rice-shaped nanoparticles).
In 2007, the global market for nanotechnology was $11.6 billion and estimated to increase to $12.7 billion by the end of 2008, according to an analysis by BCC Research. Nanomaterials accounted for 87 percent of the total nanotech market in 2007.
FOSTERING U.S.-EGYPTIAN RELATIONS
El-Sayed has mentored more than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. One former student, Mona B. Mohamed, returned to Egypt and runs a laboratory at the National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences of Cairo University. Mohamed now has several students of her own and is a source of nanotechnology reagents for colleagues in the region, El-Sayed said in an interview with America.gov.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) funds El-Sayed to collaborate with scientists in Egypt. Each year, he takes approximately 20 American nanotechnology professors to Egypt for a four- or five-day conference with their Egyptian counterparts.
El-Sayed said that America’s scientific collaboration with other countries is a great strength. He hopes to enhance relations among American and Egyptian scientists and wants to see the NSF program continue.
The other winners of the 2007 National Medal of Science are Robert J. Lefkowitz and Bert W. O’Malley (biological sciences), Leonard Kleinrock and Andrew J. Viterbi (engineering), and Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, Charles Slichter and David Wineland (physical sciences).
More information about the National Medal of Science is available at the National Science Foundation Web site.
