- 1933 - Born in Abu Bakir, Sharkia
- 1953 - He earned his B.Sc. from Ain Shams University Faculty of Science
- 1960s - His rule found in most photochemistry textbooks is useful in understanding phosphorescence, vibrational relaxation, intersystem crossing, internal conversion and lifetimes of excited states in molecules.
- 1961 - He spent time as a researcher at Harvard University, Yale University and the California Institute of Technology before joining the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles
- 1980 - For his work in the area of applying laser spectroscopic techniques to study of properties and behavior on the nanoscale, El-Sayed was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
- 1980 - Worked as a former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Physical Chemistry for 24 year
- 1989 - He received the Tolman Award
- 1990 - He has been the recipient of the 1990 King Faisal International Prize ("Arabian Nobel Prize") in Sciences
- 1990 - He has been the recipient of the Georgia Tech's highest award, "The Class of 1943 Distinguished Professor", an honorary doctorate of philosophy from the Hebrew University, and several other awards including some from the different American Chemical Society local sections
- 2002 - He won the Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics
- 2007 - He was awarded the 2007 US National Medal of Science "for his seminal and creative contributions to our understanding of the electronic and optical properties of nanomaterials and to their applications in nanocatalysis and nanomedicine, for his humanitarian efforts of exchange among countries and for his role in developing the scientific leadership of tomorrow.
- 2009 - Mostafa was also announced to be the recipient of the 2009 Ahmed Zewail prize in molecular sciences
- 2011 - He was listed #17 in Thomson-Reuters listing of the Top Chemists of the Past Decade
- 2015 - it was announced that Professor El-Sayed will receive the 2016 Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society’s highest honor, for his decades-long contributions to chemistry.
Dr. Mostafa Elsayed
The amazing chemistry
Mostafa A. El-Sayed: is a highly cited Egyptian chemical physicist, a leading nanoscience researcher, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a US National Medal of Science laureate. He is also known for the spectroscopy rule named after him, the El-Sayed rule.