His death was announced by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California, where he was Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and director of the Physical Biology Centre for Ultrafast Science and Technology.

Zewail was born in Egypt and lived in San Marino, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles.

Caltech had no information on the cause of his death or where he died. Egyptian media reported only that it was in the United States.

Over nearly 40 years at Caltech, Zewail and his students pioneered the field of femtochemistry - the use of lasers to monitor chemical reactions at a scale of a femtosecond, or a millionth of a billionth of a second.

Using Zewail's techniques, scientists can observe the bonding and busting of molecules in real time. The research could lead to new ways of manipulating chemical or biological reactions as well as faster electronics and ultra-precise machinery.

"If you can understand the landscape of a chemical change or a biological change, you might be able to alter the landscape," Zewail said after winning the Nobel Prize for chemistry.

Zewail helped develop four-dimensional electron microscopy, which can capture a real-time series of images of such fleeting processes that can be assembled into a sort of digital movie.

Zewail, who was born in Damanhur, Egypt, joined Caltech in 1976.

"I never, ever believed that one day I would get a call from Sweden as a boy," he said after receiving the Nobel. "I had passion about science. My mother said I was going to burn the house (with chemistry experiments)."

Zewail wrote some 600 scientific articles and 16 books and was showered with honours from around the world, including France's highest honour, the Legion d'Honneur, and Egypt's Order of the Grand Collar of the Nile.

In 2009, Mr Obama appointed Zewail, a naturalised citizen, to the Council of Advisers on Science and Technology and later that year made him the first US science envoy to the Middle East.

Zewail joined the United Nations Scientific Advisory Board in 2013.

In 2014, he wrote an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times which urged the US to avoid cutting aid to Egypt after a military coup that ousted the elected president and replaced him.

Zewail argued that constructive engagement and use of US "soft power" such as trade agreements were important in keeping Egypt as a partner in the war on terrorism and other American interests.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi expressed his condolences over his death, saying the country had lost a son and role model.

Egyptian media reported that Zewail's body would be flown back for burial.

Zewail is survived by his wife, Dema Faham, and four children.