Left: Ahmed Zewail, right: Shrinivas Kulkarni
Royal honors bestowed on Zewail, Kulkarni
Joining the
distinguished company of science greats Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin,
Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, Caltech’s Ahmed Zewail and
Shrinivas Kulkarni have been elected to the Royal Society, one of the
oldest and most prestigious international scientific societies.
Nobel Prize
winner Ahmed Zewail, the Pauling Professor of Chemical Physics and professor
of physics at Caltech, was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society
for his pioneering development of a new laser-based field that, as recognized
by the Nobel Prize, caused a revolution in chemistry and adjacent sciences.
Specifically,
the Royal Society cites Zewail’s work in the development of laser
techniques and their applications to ultrafast dynamics of molecular systems.
His contributions include femtochemistry, nonlinear spectroscopy, and
molecular physics.
Zewail has
conducted groundbreaking work in viewing and studying chemical reactions
at the atomic level as they occur. Because reactions can take place in
a millionth of a billionth of a second, his research has, with the use
of advanced lasers, made it possible to observe, study, and predict this
motion for the first time, thus allowing scientists to probe nature at
its fundamental level. His work has had a significant impact on chemistry
and related sciences worldwide. Born and raised in Egypt, and now a U.S.
citizen, Zewail joined Caltech in 1976.
Shrinivas
Kulkarni, the MacArthur Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science,
has also been elected to the Royal Society, as a Fellow. His revolutionary
work in astrophysics was cited for contributing to fundamental astronomical
discoveries that span a broad range of disciplines and include the fastest
radio pulsar known, with a spin period of 1.5 ms; the first example of
a brown dwarf star; white dwarf companions to binary pulsars; radio counterparts
to soft gamma-ray repeating sources, and cosmological gamma-ray bursts.
Kulkarni’s
discoveries and his recent work on the nature of gamma-ray bursts and
their use in understanding the origins of the universe have had a major
impact on astrophysics today. Born in India, and now a permanent U.S.
resident, he joined the Caltech faculty in 1985.
David Baltimore,
president of Caltech and a Nobel laureate himself, said, “Having
two such distinguished professors receive this award is, indeed, an honor
for Caltech, and is a testament to the caliber of faculty and scientists
we have here at Caltech. Both of these eminent scholars have contributed
to the advancement of science, and are most deserving of this illustrious
honor.”
The Royal
Society was established in England in 1660, and is the world’s oldest
scientific academy in continuous existence. The society’s objectives
are to recognize excellence in science; to support leading-edge scientific
research and its applications; to stimulate international interaction;
and to promote education and the public’s understanding of science.
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