He passed away in 2016 at age 70 after a battle with cancer. His legacy lives on in the way chemistry is taught and researched—turning a once-invisible, instantaneous event into a slow-motion film of atoms dancing. "The importance of knowledge and discovery cannot be overemphasized. The future belongs to those who prepare for it through science and innovation." — Ahmed Zewail

In 1999, he was awarded the in solitary honor (no co-recipients) for his development of "femtospectroscopy" and the study of transition states in chemical reactions at the timescale of femtoseconds. The Core Discovery: Femtochemistry Before Zewail, scientists could only study the starting materials and final products of a chemical reaction. The actual moment when bonds break and form—the transition state —was a theoretical "black box."

Who Was He? Ahmed Hassan Zewail (February 26, 1946 – August 2, 2016) was an Egyptian-American chemist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century for his revolutionary work in observing chemical reactions as they actually happen.