In four years time, he says, they are convinced they know more than the professor. Then, once they have become professors theniselves, they think he s pretty great again. The transition is extremely interesting, says the chemist. To succeed on Zewail s team, one must possess certain characteristics says Dantus. When things get tough, when it seems the experiment has hit an insurmountable snag, Zewail likes to gather the researchers together in his office on a Saturday for five or six hours of intense discussion.
Science requires that tremendous focusing.
Science requires intensity, Zewail says. And, he adds, I am always an optimist. Whenever an experiment begins to seem hopeless, I get more excited. Bernstein calls Zewail andacious, and adds, He has the necessary confidence to follow through on a good idea. Meanwhile, his team is trying to further perfect the femtosecond laser techniques for viewing the transition states of molecules.