Nobel Awards in Chemistry

Alfred Nobel

The Chemistry Medal
Obverse and Reverse Views

Compiled by Thomas Vella-Zarb from various sources. When you click on a recipient you mostly get a biography [mainly from the Nobel Page] or autobiography. Click the BACK button of your browser to come back here.

The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be "annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." Although Nobel offered no public reason for his creation of the prizes, it is widely believed that he did so out of moral regret over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm in 1833, and four years later his family moved to Russia. His father ran a successful St. Petersburg factory that built explosive mines and other military equipment. Educated in Russia, Paris, and the United States, Alfred Nobel proved a brilliant chemist. When his father's business faltered after the end of the Crimean War, Nobel returned to Sweden and set up a laboratory to experiment with explosives. In 1863, he invented a way to control the detonation of nitroglycerin, a highly volatile liquid that had been recently discovered but was previously regarded as too dangerous for use. Two years later, Nobel invented the blasting cap, an improved detonator that inaugurated the modern use of high explosives. Previously, the most dependable explosive was black powder, a form of gunpowder.

Nitroglycerin remained dangerous, however, and in 1864 Nobel's nitroglycerin factory blew up, killing his younger brother and several other people. Searching for a safer explosive, Nobel discovered in 1867 that the combination of nitroglycerin and a porous substance called kieselguhr produced a highly explosive mixture that was much safer to handle and use. Nobel christened his invention "dynamite," for the Greek word dynamis, meaning "power." Securing patents on dynamite, Nobel acquired a fortune as humanity put his invention to use in construction and warfare.

In 1875, Nobel created a more powerful form of dynamite, blasting gelatin, and in 1887 introduced ballistite, a smokeless nitroglycerin powder. Around that time, one of Nobel's brothers died in France, and French newspapers printed obituaries in which they mistook him for Alfred. One headline read, "The merchant of death is dead." Alfred Nobel in fact had pacifist tendencies and in his later years apparently developed strong misgivings about the impact of his inventions on the world. After he died in San Remo, Italy, on December 10, 1896, the majority of his estate went toward the creation of prizes to be given annually in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The portion of his will establishing the Nobel Peace Prize read, "[one award shall be given] to the person who has done the most or best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Exactly five years after his death, the first Nobel awards were presented.

Today, the Nobel Prizes are regarded as the most prestigious awards in the world in their various fields. Notable winners have included Marie Curie, Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela. Multiple leaders and organizations sometimes receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and multiple researchers often share the scientific awards for their joint discoveries. In 1968, a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was established by the Swedish national bank, Sveriges Riksbank, and first awarded in 1969.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decides the prizes in physics, chemistry, and economic science; the Swedish Royal Caroline Medico-Surgical Institute determines the physiology or medicine award; the Swedish Academy chooses literature; and a committee elected by the Norwegian parliament awards the peace prize. The Nobel Prizes are still presented annually on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. In 2006, each Nobel Prize carried a cash prize of nearly $1,400,000 and recipients also received a gold medal, as is the tradition.
Alfred Nobel made his fortune with his invention of dynamite. He wanted to give it away to help mankind. He made a will awarding prizes to five areas of Humanities - physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature - the will was, however, partly incomplete, so peace was added later. Nobel simply stated that prizes be given to those who, during the preceding year, "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" and that one part be given to the person who "shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement." Prizes have been awarded annually [with a few exceptions] on December 10 (the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death). Each Nobel Laureate receives a medal [above right], a hand-crafted diploma [with an individualized graphic and calligraphy], and a document confirming the prize amount (in 2000 this was 9,000,000 Swedish crowns, or about US $900,000.)

The medals for Chemistry were modelled by the Swedish sculptor and engraver Erik Lindberg. The front side of the Chemistry medals features a portrait of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death in Latin - NAT-MDCCC XXXIII OB-MDCCC XCVI. The main inscription on the reverse side is: "Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes".

Up to 1980 the medals, each weighing approximately 200 g and with a diameter of 66 mm, were made of 23-karat gold. Since then they have been made of 18-karat green gold plated with 24-karat gold. Today the medals are cast by Myntverket - the Swedish Mint - in Eskilstuna.

The Nobel medals have had the same design since 1902.

YEAR	RECIPIENT	COUNTRY	BORN / DIED	AWARDED FOR
1901	Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff	Netherlands	1852-08-30 - 1911-03-01	Discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and of the osmotic pressure in solutions
1902	Emil H. Fischer	Germany	1852-10-09 - 1919-07-15	Synthetic studies in the area of sugar and purine groups
1903	Svante A. Arrhenius	Sweden	1859-02-19 - 1927-10-02	Theory of electrolytic dissociation
1904	Sir William Ramsay	United Kingdom	1852-10-02 - 1916-07-23	Discovery of the indifferent gaseous elements in air (noble gases)
1905	Adolf von Baeyer	Germany	1835-10-31 - 1917-08-20	Organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds
1906	Henri Moissan	France	1852-09-28 - 1907-02-20	Investigation and isolation of the element fluorine
1907	Eduard Buchner	Germany	1860-05-20 - 1917-08-13	Biochemical studies, discovery of fermentation without cells
1908	Sir Ernest Rutherford	United Kingdom	1871-08-30 - 1937-10-19	Decay of the elements, chemistry of radioactive substances
1909	Wilhelm Ostwald	Germany	1853-09-02 - 1932-04-04	Catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction rates
1910	Otto Wallach	Germany	1847-03-27 - 1931-02-26	Alicyclic compounds
1911	Marie Curie	France, Poland	1867-11-07 - 1934-07-04	Discovery of radium and polonium
1912	Victor Grignard	France	1871-05-16 - 1935-12-13	Grignard's reagent
1912	Paul Sabatier	France	1854-11-05 - 1941-08-14	Hydrogenation of organic compounds in the presence of finely divided metals
1913	Alfred Werner	Switzerland	1866-12-12 - 1919-11-15	Bonding relations of atoms in molecules (inorganic chemistry)
1914	Theodore W. Richards	USA	1868-01-31 - 1928-04-02	Determination of atomic weights
1915	Richard Willstätter	Germany	1872-08-13 - 1942-08-03	Investigation of plant pigments, particularly of chlorophyll
1916	Not Awarded
1917	Not Awarded
1918	Fritz Haber	Germany	1868-12-09 - 1934-01-29	Synthesis of ammonia from its elements
1919	Not Awarded
1920	Walther H. Nernst	Germany	1864-06-25 - 1941-11-18	Studies on thermodynamics
1921	Frederick Soddy	United Kingdom	1877-09-02 - 1956-09-22	Chemistry of radioactive substances, occurrence and nature of the isotopes
1922	Francis W. Aston	United Kingdom	1877-09-01 - 1945-11-20	Discovery of a large number of isotopes, mass spectrograph
1923	Fritz Pregl	Austria	1869-09-03 - 1930-12-13	Microanalysis of organic compounds
1924	Not Awarded
1925	Richard A. Zsigmondy	Germany, Austria	1865-04-01 - 1929-09-29	Colloid chemistry (ultramicroscope)
1926	Theodor Svedberg	Sweden	1884-08-30 - 1971-02-26	Disperse systems (ultracentrifuge)
1927	Heinrich O. Wieland	Germany	1877-06-04 - 1957-08-05	Constitution of bile acids
1928	Adolf Windaus	Germany	1876-12-25 - 1959-06-09	Study of sterols and their relation with vitamins (vitamin D)
1929	Hans von Euler-Chelpin	Sweden, Germany	1873-02-15 - 1964-11-06	Studies on fermentation of sugars and enzymes
1929	Arthur Harden	United Kingdom	1861-10-12 - 1940-06-17	Studies on fermentation of sugars and enzymes
1930	Hans Fischer	Germany	1881-07-27 - 1945-03-31	Studies on blood and plant pigments, synthesis of hemin
1931	Friedrich Bergius	Germany	1884-10-11 - 1949-03-30	Development of chemical high-pressure processes
1931	Carl Bosch	Germany	1874-08-27 - 1940-04-26	Development of chemical high-pressure processes
1932	Irving Langmuir	USA	1881-01-31 - 1957-08-16	Surface chemistry
1933	Not Awarded
1934	Harold C. Urey	USA	1893-04-29 - 1981-01-06	Discovery of heavy hydrogen (deuterium)
1935	Frédéric Joliot	France	1900-03-19 - 1958-08-14	Syntheses of new radioactive elements (artificial radioactivity)
1935	Irène Joliot-Curie	France	1897-09-12 - 1956-03-17
1936	Peter J. W. Debye	Germany, Netherlands	1884-03-24 - 1966-11-02	Studies on dipole moments and the diffraction of X rays and electron beams by gases
1937	Sir Walter N. Haworth	United Kingdom	1883-03-19 - 1950-03-19	Studies on carbohydrates and vitamin C
1937	Paul Karrer	Switzerland	1889-04-21 - 1971-06-18	Studies on carotenoids and flavins and vitamins A and B2
1938	Richard Kuhn	Germany	1900-12-03 - 1967-07-31	Studies on carotenoids and vitamins
1939	Adolf F. J. Butenandt	Germany	1903-03-24 - 1995-01-18	Studies on sexual hormones
1939	Leopold Ruzicka	Switzerland	1887-09-13 - 1976-09-26	Studies on polymethylenes and higher terpenes
1940	Not Awarded
1941	Not Awarded
1942	Not Awarded
1943	George de Hevesy	Hungary	1885-08-01 - 1966-07-05	Application of isotopes as indicators in the investigation chemical processes
1944	Otto Hahn	Germany	1879-03-08 - 1968-07-28	Discovery of the nuclear fission of atoms
1945	Artturi I. Virtanen	Finland	1895-01-15 - 1973-11-11	Discoveries in the area of agricultural and food chemistry, method of preservation of fodder
1946	John H. Northrop	USA	1891-07-05 - 1987-05-27	Preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in pure form
1946	Wendell M. Stanley	USA	1904-08-16 - 1971-06-15	Preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in pure form
	James B. Sumner	USA	1887-11-19 - 1955-08-12	Crystallizability of enzymes
1947	Sir Robert Robinson	United Kingdom	1886-09-13 - 1975-02-08	Studies on alkaloids
1948	Arne W. K. Tiselius	Sweden	1902-08-10 - 1971-10-29	Analysis by means of electrophoresis and adsorption, discoveries about serum proteins
1949	William F. Giauque	USA	1895-05-12 - 1982-03-28	Contributions to chemical thermodynamics, properties at extremely low temperatures (adiabatic demagnetization)
1950	Kurt Alder	Germany	1902-07-10 - 1958-06-20	Development of the diene synthesis
1950	Otto P. H. Diels	Germany	1876-01-23 - 1954-03-07	Development of the diene synthesis
1951	Edwin M. McMillan	USA	*1907-09-18	Discoveries in the chemistry of transuranium elements
1951	Glenn Th. Seaborg	USA	1912-04-19 - 1999-02-25	Discoveries in the chemistry of transuranium elements
1952	Archer J. P. Martin	United Kingdom	*1910-03-01	Invention of distribution chromatography
1952	Richard L. M. Synge	United Kingdom	1914-10-28 - 1994-08-18	Invention of distribution chromatography
1953	Hermann Staudinger	Germany	1881-03-23 - 1965-09-08	Discoveries in the area of macromolecular chemistry
1954	Linus Carl Pauling	USA	1901-02-28 - 1994-08-19	Studies on the nature of the chemical bond (molecular structure of proteins)
1955	Vincent du Vigneaud	USA	1901-05-18 - 1978-12-11	Synthesis of a polypeptide hormone
1956	Sir Cyril N. Hinshelwood	United Kingdom	1897-06-19 - 1967-10-09	Mechanisms of chemical reactions
1956	Nikolai N. Semenov	Soviet Union	1896-04-15 - 1986-09-25	Mechanisms of chemical reactions
1957	Sir Alexander R. Todd	United Kingdom	*1907-07-02	Studies on nucleotides and their coenzymes
1958	Frederick Sanger	United Kingdom	*1918-08-13	Structure of proteins, especially of insulin
1959	Jaroslav Heyrovský	Czechoslovakia	1890-12-20 - 1967-03-27	Polarography
1960	Willard F. Libby	USA	1908-12-17 - 1980-09-08	Application of carbon 14 for age determinations (radiocarbon dating)
1961	Melvin Calvin	USA	*1911-04-07	Studies on the assimilation of carbonic acid by plants (photosynthesis)
1962	John Cowdery Kendrew	United Kingdom	*1917-03-24	Studies on the structures of globulin proteins
1962	Max Ferdinand Perutz	United Kingdom, Austria	1914-05-19 - 2002-02-06	Studies on the structures of globulin proteins
1963	Giulio Natta	Italy	1903-02-26 - 1979-05-02	Chemistry and technology of high polymers
1963	Karl Ziegler	Germany	1898-11-26 - 1973-08-11	Chemistry and technology of high polymers
1964	Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin	United Kingdom	*1910-05-12	Structure determination of biologically important substances by means of X rays
1965	Robert Burns Woodward	USA	1917-04-10 - 1979-07-08	Syntheses of natural products
1966	Robert S. Mulliken	USA	1896-06-07 - 1986-10-31	Studies on chemical bonds and the electron structure of molecules by means of the orbital method
1967	Manfred Eigen	Germany	*1927-05-09	Investigations of extremely fast chemical reactions
	George Porter	United Kingdom	*1920-12-06
	Ronald G. W. Norrish	United Kingdom	1897-11-09 - 1978-06-07
1968	Lars Onsager	USA, Norway	1903-11-27 - 1976-10-05	Studies on the thermodynamics of irreversible processes
1969	Odd Hassel	Norway	1897-05-17 - 1981-05-13	Development of the concept of conformation
1969	Derek H. Barton	United Kingdom	*1918-09-08	Development of the concept of conformation
1970	Luis F. Leloir	Argentina	*1906-09-06	Discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates
1971	Gerhard Herzberg	Canada	1904-12-25 - 1999-03-03	Electron structure and geometry of molecules, particularly of free radicals (molecular spectroscopy)
1972	Christian B. Anfinsen	USA	*1916-03-26	Studies on ribonuclease
	Stanford Moore	USA	1913-09-04 - 1982-08-23	Studies on ribonuclease
	William H. Stein	USA	1911-06-25 - 1980-02-02	Studies on the active center of ribonuclease
1973	Ernst Otto Fischer	Germany	*1918-11-10	Chemistry of metal-organic sandwich compounds
1973	Geoffrey Wilkinson	United Kingdom	1921-07-14 - 1996-09-26	Chemistry of metal-organic sandwich compounds
1974	Paul J. Flory	USA	1910-06-19 - 1985-09-09	Physical chemistry of macromolecules
1975	John W. Cornforth	United Kingdom	*1917-09-07	Stereochemistry of enzyme catalysis reactions
1975	Vladimir Prelog	Switzerland, Yugoslavia	1906-07-23 - 1998-01-07	Studies on the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions
1976	William N. Lipscomb	USA	*1919-12-09	Structure of boranes
1977	Ilya Prigogine	Belgium	1917-01-25 - 2003-05-28	Contributions to the thermodynamics of irreversible processes, particularly to the theory of dissipative structures
1978	Peter D. Mitchell	United Kingdom	*1920-09-29	Studies of biological energy transfer, development of the chemiosmotic theory
1979	Georg Wittig	Germany	1897-06-16 - 1987-08-26	Development of (organic boron and phosphorous compounds)
1979	Herbert C. Brown	USA	*1912-05-22	Development of (organic boron and phosphorous compounds)
1980	Paul Berg	USA	*1926-06-30	Studies on the biochemistry of nucleic acids, particularly hybrid DNA (technology of gene surgery)
	Walter Gilbert	USA	*1932-03-21
	Frederick Sanger	United Kingdom	1918-08-13	Determination of base sequences in nucleic acids
1981	Kenichi Fukui	Japan	*1918-10-04	Theories on the progress of chemical reactions (frontier orbital theory)
1981	Roald Hoffmann	USA	*1937-07-18
1982	Aaron Klug	United Kingdom	*1926-08-11	Development of crystallographic methods for the elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid protein complexes
1983	Henry Taube	Canada	*1915-11-30	Reaction mechanisms of electron transfer, especially with metal complexes
1984	Robert Bruce Merrifield	USA	*1921-07-15	Method for the preparation of peptides and proteins
1985	Herbert A. Hauptman	USA	1917-02-14	Development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures
1985	Jerome Karle	USA	1918-06-18
1986	John C. Polanyi	Canada	*1929-01-23	Dynamics of chemical elementary processes
	Dudley R. Herschbach	USA	*1932-06-18
	Yuan Tseh Lee	USA	*1936-11-29
1987	Donald J. Cram	USA	1919-04-22 - 2001-06-27	Development of molecules with structurally specific interaction of high selectivity
	Charles J. Pedersen	USA	1904-10-03 - 1989-10-26
	Jean-Marie Lehn	France	*1939-09-30
1988	Johann Deisenhofer	Germany	*1943-09-30	Determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction center
	Robert Huber	Germany	*1937-02-20
	Hartmut Michel	Germany	*1948-07-18
1989	Sidney Altman	Canada	*1939-05-08	Discovery of the catalytic properties of ribonucleic acid (RNA)
1989	Thomas Robert Cech	USA	*1939-05-08	*1947-12-08
1990	Elias James Corey	USA	*1928-07-12	Development of novel methods for the synthesis of complex natural compounds (retrosynthetic analysis)
1991	Richard Robert Ernst	Switzerland	*1933-08-14	Development of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR)
1992	Rudolph A. Marcus	USA	*1923	Theories of electron transfer
1993	Kary Banks Mullis	USA	*1944	Invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
	Michael Smith	Canada	*1932	Development of site specific mutagenesis
1994	George A. Olah	USA	*1927	Carbocations
1995	Paul Crutzen	Netherlands	*1933	Their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone
	Mario Molina	Mexico	*1943
	Frank Sherwood Rowland	USA	*1927
1996	Robert F. Curl, Jr.	USA	*1933	Their discovery of fullerenes
	Sir Harold W. Kroto	United Kingdom	*1939
	Richard E. Smalley	USA	*1943
1997	Paul D. Boyer	USA	*1918	Their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)
	John E. Walker	United Kingdom	*1941
	Jens C. Skou	Denmark	*1918	The first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, Na+, K+-ATPase
1998	Walter Kohn	USA	*1923	Walter Kohn for his development of the density-functional theory John Pople for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry (GAUSSIAN) computer programs
1998	John A. Pople	United Kingdom/USA	*1925
1999	Ahmed H. Zewail	USA, Egypt	*1946	His studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy
2000	Alan J. Heeger	USA	*1936	The discovery and development of conductive polymers
	Alan G. MacDiarmid	USA	*1927
	Hideki Shirakawa	Japan	*1936
2001	William S. Knowles	USA	*1917	Their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions
	Ryoji Noyori	Japan	*1938	Their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions
	K. Barry Sharpless	USA	*1941	His work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions
2002	John B. Fenn	USA	*1917	Their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules
	Koichi Tanaka	Japan	*1959
	Kurt Wüthrich	Switzerland	*1938	His development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution
2003	Peter Agre	USA	*1949	The discovery of water channels in cell membranes
2003	Roderick MacKinnon	USA	*1956	Structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels in cell membranes
2004
	Aaron Ciechanover	Israel	*1947	The discovery of a key way cells destroy unwanted proteins
	Avram Hershko	Israel	*1937
	Irwin Rose	USA	*1926
2005
	Yves Chauvinr	France	*1930	The development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis
	Robert H. Grubbs	U.S.A.	*1942
	Richard R. Schrock	U.S.A	*1945
2006	Roger D. Kornberg	U.S.A	*1947	His studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription
2007	Gerhard Ertl	Germany	*1936	His studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces.
2008
	Osamu Shimomura	U.S.A.	*1928	Their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP
	Martin Chalfie	U.S.A.	*1947
	Roger Y. Tsien	U.S.A.	*1952

2009	Venkatraman Ramakrishnan	U.K.	*1952	For studies of the structure and function of the ribosome
	Thomas A. Steitz	U.S.A.	*1940
	Ada E. Yonath	Israel	*1939

Note: * = Still living