CAIRO: Egyptian chemical physicist and leading nanoscience researcher, Mostafa El Sayed, was awarded the US National Medal of Science by US President George W. Bush at a ceremony held at the White House on Monday Sept. 29. El Sayed is a Regents professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He also holds the Julius Brown Chair there and is director of the Laser Dynamics Laboratory. He is known for the spectroscopy rule named after him, the El Sayed Rule. "I want to thank my past and present graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, my colleagues, the administration and staff at Georgia Tech and UCLA, who all helped me get this honor. There was no limit to the support I received, El Sayed said in a statement distributed by Georgia Tech. El Sayed has been granted the medal for his "seminal contributions to our understanding of the electronic and optical properties of nano-materials and to their applications in nano-catalysis and nano-medicine; his humanitarian efforts in promoting the exchange of ideas; and his role in developing the scientific leadership of tomorrow, according to news reports. The National Medal of Science is awarded by the President of the United States and it honors individuals for pioneering scientific research in science and engineering for making important contributions to the advancement in a range of fields, including physical, biological, mathematical, social, behavioral and engineering sciences. The National Science Foundation administers the award, which was established by the American Congress in 1959. In addition, on Oct. 2 the leading international journal Chemical Physics Letters announced that El Sayed will be awarded their second Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences for "his seminal contributions to the understanding of the electronic and molecular dynamics and properties of systems with different length scales, ranging from molecules to nanoparticles to biomedical systems, according to their website. The prize is a monetary award of $20,000 which will be presented during the 2009 Spring meeting of the American Chemical Society, in Salt Lake City, USA. El Sayed is currently working with his son Ivan, of the University of California, San Francisco, to develop cylindrical gold nanorods that can bind to cancer cells which will make them easy to detect. Thus, by using laser, they can selectively destroy the cancer cells without harming the healthy cells. The nanorods are tuned to a frequency that allows them to use lasers that can delve under the skin to kill cancer cells without harming the skin. El Sayed is yet to be honored in Egypt. In a recent news report, the Ministry of Higher Education said the scientist would be honored "when the right time comes.
