Zewail denies Presidential ambitions

Ahmed Zewail of Cal Tech, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (for inventing a laser camera with a mind-boggling shutter speed of 1 femtosecond to enable him to photograph chemical reactions pretty much step-by-step), DENIES AMBITIONS TO BE PRESIDENT OF EGYPT.

He claims instead to be interested in sparking an industrial revolution in this country.

Zewail generally seems quite popular here. He’s on our Board of Trustees and shows up for Commencement every so often, and the students always go crazy as if he were a rock star (not the usual reaction to chemists in the U.S.A.).

However, my understanding is that a law was passed since the Revolution requiring that the Egyptian President must have an Egyptian spouse. This law was widely believed to be aimed at Zewail personally; his wife is from Syria.

Nonetheless, Ayman Nour recently got out of the legal jam preventing his candidacy (when he was granted a retrial on the bogus charges that landed him in prison some years ago) and perhaps Zewail can do the same, assuming he’s interested in the Presidency and just being coy with his denials.