astronomy

Samy El-Shall

Samy El-Shall is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Samy El-Shall rather than just read about it. In short: Samy El-Shall is an Egyptian-American chemist and academic. He is the Mary Eugenia Kapp Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Key takeaways

Samy El-Shall belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Samy El-Shall to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Samy El-Shall from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Samy El-Shall is an Egyptian-American chemist and academic. He is the Mary Eugenia Kapp Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. El-Shall's research interests include nanostructured materials, graphene, and nanocatalysis for energy and environmental applications. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Education and career El-Shall earned his B.S. degree in chemistry in 1976 from Cairo University. Later in 1985, he completed his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Georgetown University. El-Shall is the Mary Eugenia Kapp Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Moreover, he also held an appointment as the senior science advisor in the Bureau for the Middle East, Middle East Regional Cooperation (MERC) Program.

Research El-Shall, along with Wang and others, presented a simple solution synthesis for quantum dots of metal sulfides, featuring chemical reactions between KBH4, sulfur, and metal salts at room temperature in organic solvents. He also developed a new method of synthesizing polymers by utilizing a laser to vaporize metal targets, adding metal particles to the polymer-formation process. His group developed a microwave-based technique to make uniform nanowires and nanorods of certain semiconductors. The process involved changing the heat time to control the shape evolution from nanoparticles to nanorods, and eventually to extended nanowires. His research group also proposed a microwave-assisted method to deposit metal nanoparticles and reduce graphene oxide simultaneously by utilizing reducing agents. El-Shall, in collaboration with Abdelsayed and others, reported a photothermal reduction method to obtain reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets. His work established the effectivity of hybrid catalysts made using microwave-assisted chemical reduction in catalyzing carbon–carbon coupling (Suzuki, Heck) reactions. In addition, he also demonstrated the utility of Pd/FE3O4/G nanocomposites as catalysts for Suzuki and Heck cross-coupling reactions. Furthermore, he co-designed a synergistic bimetallic metal–organic framework containing copper and cobalt ions using benzene tetraamine and benzene tricarboxylic acid.

Awards and honors 2012 - Fellow, American Physical Society 2013 - Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science 2018 - Virginia Outstanding Scientist, Government of Virginia

Selected articles Wang, W.; Germanenko, I.; El-Shall, M. S. (2002). "Room-temperature synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline CdS, ZnS, and CdxZn1–xS". Chemistry of Materials. 14 (7): 3028–3033. doi:10.1021/cm020040x. Panda, A. B.; Glaspell, G.; El-Shall, M. S. (2006). "Microwave synthesis of highly aligned ultra narrow semiconductor rods and wires". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 128 (9): 2790–2791. Bibcode:2006JAChS.128.2790P. doi:10.1021/ja058148b. PMID 16506744. Hassan, H. M.; Abdelsayed, V.; Abd El Rahman, S. K.; AbouZeid, K. M.; Terner, J.; El-Shall, M. S.; Al-Resayes, S. I.; El-Azhary, A. A. (2009). "Microwave synthesis of graphene sheets supporting metal nanocrystals in aqueous and organic media". Journal of Materials Chemistry. 19 (23): 3832–3837. doi:10.1039/b906253j. Abdelsayed, V.; Moussa, S.; Hassan, H. M.; Aluri, H. S.; Collinson, M. M.; El-Shall, M. S. (2010). "Photothermal deoxygenation of graphite oxide with laser excitation in solution and graphene-aided increase in water temperature". The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. 1 (19): 2804–2809. doi:10.1021/jz1011143. Siamaki, A. R.; Abd El Rahman, S. K.; Abdelsayed, V.; El-Shall, M. S.; Gupton, B. F. (2011). "Microwave-assisted synthesis of palladium nanoparticles supported on graphene: A highly active and recyclable catalyst for carbon–carbon cross-coupling reactions". Journal of Catalysis. 279 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1016/j.jcat.2010.12.003.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Samy El-Shall

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Samy El-Shall claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Samy El-Shall before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Samy El-Shall ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Samy El-Shall

In research: Samy El-Shall appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Samy El-Shall in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Samy El-Shall is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American people of Egyptian descent, Cairo University alumni, Fellows of the American Physical Society, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Samy El-Shall outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Samy El-Shall in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Samy El-Shall means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Samy El-Shall out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Samy El-Shall in simple terms?

Samy El-Shall is an Egyptian-American chemist and academic. He is the Mary Eugenia Kapp Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Why does Samy El-Shall matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Samy El-Shall?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Samy El-Shall.