Awards & Winners

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine. This award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on proposal of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry which consists of five members elected by Academy. The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The first Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 1901 to Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, of the Netherlands, "for his discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions."
Date Established : 1901

Check all the winners of Nobel Prize in Chemistry presented under Nobel Prize since 1901 .


Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, Arieh Warshel

(for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems)

Brian Kobilka, Robert Lefkowitz

(for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors)

Dan Shechtman

(for the discovery of quasicrystals)

Ei-ichi Negishi, Akira Suzuki, Richard F. Heck

(for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis)

Ada Yonath, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz

(for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome)

Nominations 2009 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Roger Y. Tsien, Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie

(for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP)

Nominations 2008 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Gerhard Ertl

(for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces)

Nominations 2007 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Roger D. Kornberg

(for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription)

Nominations 2006 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs, Richard R. Schrock

(for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis)

Nominations 2005 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Aaron Ciechanover, Irwin Rose, Avram Hershko

(for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation)

Nominations 2004 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Peter Agre

(for the discovery of water channels)

Nominations 2003 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Roderick MacKinnon

(for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels)

Nominations 2003 »

Nominee Nominated Work

John Fenn, Koichi Tanaka

(for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules)

Nominations 2002 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Kurt Wüthrich

(for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution)

Nominations 2002 »

Nominee Nominated Work

William Standish Knowles, Ry?ji Noyori

(for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions)

Nominations 2001 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Karl Barry Sharpless

(for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions)

Nominations 2001 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Alan J. Heeger, Hideki Shirakawa, Alan MacDiarmid

(for the discovery and development of conductive polymers)

Nominations 2000 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Ahmed Zewail

(for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy)

Nominations 1999 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Walter Kohn

(for his development of the density-functional theory)

Nominations 1998 »

Nominee Nominated Work

John Pople

(for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry)

Nominations 1998 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Paul D. Boyer, John E. Walker

(for their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP))

Nominations 1997 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Jens Christian Skou

(for the first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, Na+, K+ -ATPase)

Nominations 1997 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Harry Kroto, Richard Smalley, Robert Curl

(for their discovery of fullerenes)

Nominations 1996 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Paul J. Crutzen, Mario J. Molina, Frank Sherwood Rowland

(for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone)

Nominations 1995 »

Nominee Nominated Work

George Andrew Olah

(for his contribution to carbocation chemistry)

Nominations 1994 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Kary Mullis

(for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method)

Nominations 1993 »

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Michael Smith

(for his fundamental contributions to the establishment of oligonucleotide-based, site-directed mutagenesis and its development for protein studies)

Nominations 1993 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Rudolph A. Marcus

(for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems)

Nominations 1992 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Richard R. Ernst

(for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy)

Nominations 1991 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Elias James Corey

(for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis)

Nominations 1990 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Sidney Altman, Thomas Cech

(for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA)

Nominations 1989 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Robert Huber, Johann Deisenhofer, Hartmut Michel

(for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre)

Nominations 1988 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Donald J. Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn, Charles J. Pedersen

(for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity)

Nominations 1987 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Dudley R. Herschbach, Yuan T. Lee, John Polanyi

(for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes)

Nominations 1986 »

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Herbert A. Hauptman, Jerome Karle

(for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures)

Nominations 1985 »

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Robert Bruce Merrifield

(for his development of methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix.)

Nominations 1984 »

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Henry Taube

(for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes.)

Aaron Klug

(for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes.)

Nominations 1982 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Kenichi Fukui, Roald Hoffmann

(for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions.)

Nominations 1981 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Paul Berg

(for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA.)

Nominations 1980 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Frederick Sanger, Walter Gilbert

(for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids.)

Nominations 1980 »

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Georg Wittig, Herbert C. Brown

(for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis.)

Nominations 1979 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Peter D. Mitchell

(for his contribution to the understanding of biological energy transfer through the formulation of the chemiosmotic theory)

Nominations 1978 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Ilya Prigogine

(for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures)

Nominations 1977 »

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William Lipscomb

(for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding)

Nominations 1976 »

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John Cornforth

(for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions)

Nominations 1975 »

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Vladimir Prelog

(for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions)

Nominations 1975 »

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Paul Flory

(for his fundamental achievements, both theoretical and experimental, in the physical chemistry of the macromolecules)

Nominations 1974 »

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Geoffrey Wilkinson, Ernst Otto Fischer

(for their pioneering work, performed independently, on the chemistry of the organometallic, so called sandwich compounds)

Nominations 1973 »

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Christian B. Anfinsen

(for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation)

Nominations 1972 »

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Stanford Moore, William Howard Stein

(for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule)

Nominations 1972 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Gerhard Herzberg

(for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals)

Nominations 1971 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Luis Federico Leloir

(for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates)

Nominations 1970 »

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Derek Barton, Odd Hassel

(for their contributions to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry)

Nominations 1969 »

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Lars Onsager

(for the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes)

Nominations 1968 »

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Manfred Eigen, Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, George Porter

(for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equlibrium by means of very short pulses of energy)

Nominations 1967 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Robert S. Mulliken

(for his fundamental work concerning chemical bonds and the electronic structure of molecules by the molecular orbital method)

Nominations 1966 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Robert Burns Woodward

(for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis)

Nominations 1965 »

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Dorothy Hodgkin

(for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances)

Nominations 1964 »

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Giulio Natta, Karl Ziegler

(for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers)

Nominations 1963 »

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Max Perutz, John Kendrew

(for their studies of the structures of globular proteins)

Nominations 1962 »

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Melvin Calvin

(for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants)

Nominations 1961 »

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Willard Libby

(for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science)

Nominations 1960 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Jaroslav Heyrovský

(for his discovery and development of the polarographic methods of analysis)

Nominations 1959 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Frederick Sanger

(for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin)

Nominations 1958 »

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Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd

(for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes)

Nominations 1957 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, Nikolay Semyonov

(for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions)

Nominations 1956 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Vincent du Vigneaud

(for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone)

Linus Pauling

(for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances)

Hermann Staudinger

(for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry.)

Archer John Porter Martin, Richard Laurence Millington Synge

(for their invention of partition chromatography.)

Edwin McMillan, Glenn T. Seaborg

(for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements.)

Otto Diels, Kurt Alder

(for their discovery and development of the diene synthesis.)

William Giauque

(for his contributions in the field of chemical thermodynamics, particularly concerning the behaviour of substances at extremely low temperatures)

Arne Tiselius

(for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning the complex nature of the serum proteins)

Robert Robinson

(for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids.)

Wendell Meredith Stanley, John Howard Northrop

(for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form)

James B. Sumner

(for his discovery that enzymes can be crystallized)

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen

(for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method.)

Otto Hahn

(for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei)

George de Hevesy

(for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes.)

Adolf Butenandt

(for his work on sex hormones.)

Leopold Ruži?ka

(for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes.)

Richard Kuhn

(for his work on carotenoids and vitamins)

Norman Haworth

(for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C)

Paul Karrer

(for his investigations on carotenoids, flavins and vitamins A and B2)

Peter Debye

(for his contributions to our knowledge of molecular structure through his investigations on dipole moments and on the diffraction of X-rays and electrons in gases.)

Irène Joliot-Curie, Frédéric Joliot-Curie

(in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements)

Harold Urey

(for his discovery of heavy hydrogen.)

Irving Langmuir

(for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry.)

Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius

(in recognition of their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high pressure methods)

Hans Fischer

(for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of haemin.)

Arthur Harden, Hans von Euler-Chelpin

(for their investigations on the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes)

Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus

(for the services rendered through his research into the constitution of the sterols and their connection with the vitamins.)

Heinrich Otto Wieland

(for his investigations of the constitution of the bile acids and related substances)

Theodor Svedberg

(for his work on disperse systems)

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy

(for his demonstration of the heterogenous nature of colloid solutions and for the methods he used, which have since become fundamental in modern colloid chemistry)

Fritz Pregl

(for his invention of the method of micro-analysis of organic substances)

Francis William Aston

(for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes, in a large number of non-radioactive elements, and for his enunciation of the whole-number rule.)

Frederick Soddy

(for his contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances, and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes)

Walther Nernst

(in recognition of his work in thermochemistry)

Fritz Haber

(for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements)

Richard Willstätter

(for his researches on plant pigments, especially chlorophyll)

Theodore William Richards

(in recognition of his accurate determinations of the atomic weight of a large number of chemical elements.)

Alfred Werner

(in recognition of his work on the linkage of atoms in molecules by which he has thrown new light on earlier investigations and opened up new fields of research especially in inorganic chemistry)

Victor Grignard

(for the discovery of the so-called Grignard reagent, which in recent years has greatly advanced the progress of organic chemistry.)

Paul Sabatier

(for his method of hydrogenating organic compounds in the presence of finely disintegrated metals whereby the progress of organic chemistry has been greatly advanced in recent years.)

Marie Curie

(in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element)

Otto Wallach

(in recognition of his services to organic chemistry and the chemical industry by his pioneer work in the field of alicyclic compounds)

Wilhelm Ostwald

(in recognition of his work on catalysis and for his investigations into the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibria and rates of reaction.)

Ernest Rutherford

(for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances)

Eduard Buchner

(for his biochemical researches and his discovery of cell-free fermentation.)

Henri Moissan

(in recognition of the great services rendered by him in his investigation and isolation of the element fluorine, and for the adoption in the service of science of the electric furnace called after him.)

Adolf von Baeyer

(in recognition of his services in the advancement of organic chemistry and the chemical industry, through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds)

William Ramsay

(in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and his determination of their place in the periodic system)

Svante Arrhenius

(in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation.)

Hermann Emil Fischer

(in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his work on sugar and purine syntheses)

Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff

(in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions)