El-Sayed Wins US National Medal of Science

In a ceremony in the East Room of the White House today, President George W. Bush presented the 2007 National Medals of Science and Technology and Innovation. Among this year's honorees is Mostafa El-Sayed of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia), who was recognized 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."

Dr. El-Sayed, a leading chemical physicist and nanoscience researcher, is known for the spectroscopy rule named after him, the "El-Sayed Rule." He heads the Laser Dynamics Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His lab is known for the development of gold nanorod technology. His research interests include the use of steady-state and ultrafast laser spectroscopy to understand relaxation, transport, and conversion of energy in molecules, in solids, in photosynthetic systems, semiconductor quantum dots, and metal nanostructures.

The National Medals of Science are the nation's highest honor in the field, and are administered by the National Science Foundation.