Historical perspective on: Femtosecond transition-state spectroscopy of iodine—From strongly bound to repulsive surface dynamics [Volume 161, Issues 4–5, 22 September 1989, Pages 297–302]

Summary by J.L. Herek. Nobel prize-winner: Professor Ahmed Zewail. In the spring of 1990, I was a young liberal arts student soon to graduate from Lawrence University in Wisconsin, dreaming of a career in chemical physics. Thanks to an elective course on applications of lasers in chemistry and physics, which also required a literature study and report, I had found that a revolution in chemical physics was underway, with many groups clamouring to conquer new territory in the study of chemical reactions: the elusive and fleeting transition state. My interest in this emerging field dictated my choices of potential graduate schools, with Caltech and the group of Ahmed Zewail at the top of my list.