A compilation of wonderful tributes to the late Ahmed Zewail (1946-2016), considered the 'Father of Femtochemistry', a long-standing icon in the field of physical chemistry, and the father of ultrafast electron-based methods. The book contains testimonies by friends and relatives of Zewail and by outstanding scientists from around the world who worked or have been affiliated with the Nobel prizewinning professor. Each contribution describes the author's own unique experience and personal relationship with Zewail, and includes details of his scientific achievements and the stories around them. Personal and Scientific Reminiscences collects accounts from the most important individuals in the physical and chemical sciences to give us a unique insight into the world and work of one of the great scientists of our time.

Alan Hodgkin believes that - contrary to popular conviction - chance plays quite as large a role as design in scientific discovery. This engaging autobiography charts the balance of the two in his own life. Beginning starts with an account of his childhood in an extended Quaker family. Not a great success at school, he nevertheless won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, and he writes informatively of the climate of university opinion in the thirties when he was an undergraduate and came to abandon the pacifist ideals of his upbringing. A chance observation on frog nerve led to a Trinity Fellowship and a year at the Rockefeller Institute in New York (where he met his future wife), to the Nobel Prize in 1963, and ultimately to the Presidency of the Royal Society. His experiments on nerve conduction seemed almost at the point of success when everything had to be abandoned on the outbreak of war in 1939, and for six years Hodgkin worked on the concept and design of airborne radar, described in the central section of the book as Flight Trials and Tribulations. The account of his return to civilian life and the resumption of experimentation includes two chapters of solid detail of Starting Again - for this is a book for any reader interested in the origin and development of a dedicated scientist.

In this unique illustrated book, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, senior visiting scholars, and staff describe their personal experiences in working with the late Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail at Caltech. Their reminiscences provide snapshots of their rich interactions, reflecting the great scientific achievements, as well as the human and humorous sides of Ahmed H. Zewail.The contributors tell us their stories covering a period of forty years, beginning from the time of Zewail's arrival at Caltech in 1976. Some of them cover the time when Zewail was starting his pioneering work on femtochemistry at the end of 80's, while others relate events long after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1999) and had embarked on a new career in ultrafast electron imaging. The aims and scope of this book is to provide both scientists and non-scientists descriptions of the experiences of scientists in the early or mature stages of their careers when interacting with one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, from developing the field of femtochemistry to pioneering ultrafast electron diffraction and imaging technology. The personal dimension of Zewail's leadership is reflected in all the contributions, and highlighted by special tributes from two of his children.The scientific and anecdotal stories recounted in the book give a rare view of experiences in shaping science. The reader will get firsthand accounts of how a Nobel Prize winner interacted daily with his co-workers to develop the laser-based science and technology for which he was internationally recognized. The recounted experiences may serve as a basis for scientists developing their own research, tutoring students, and supervising postdoctoral researchers.

Although recognition of reminiscing as a potentially adaptive process can be traced back over 30 years to the seminal work of Robert Butler as discussed in the Foreword, there has been little effort to consolidate the work and paint a complete picture of reminiscing as an entity. Here, reminiscing is presented as a multi-disciplinary topic, examining the theory of, and research on, reminiscing. The book also discusses the different ways of conducting life-review interviews and explores therapeutic applications.; Contributors to this book, many of whom are pioneers and leading figures in the field, discuss and elaborate their latest thinking and research findings from multiple perspectives. The volume's strength derives from its multi-disciplinary nursing, psychiatry, psychology, gerontology, community advocacy and multinational Australia, Canada, England, Sweden and the United States treatment. James Birren, Irene Burnside, and Phillipe Cappeliez are a few of the eminent scholars authoring this volume.