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Nobel Laureates in Chemistry

All winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

205 rows6 columns2 views0 downloadsSource: WikipediaUpdated: 2/22/2026
nobelchemistrylaureatesscience
205 of 205 rows
Year
Image
Laureate
Nationality
Rationale
Ref
1,901Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff(1852–1911)Dutch" discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions"
1,902Hermann Emil Fischer(1852–1919)German" his work on sugar and purine syntheses"
1,903Svante August Arrhenius(1859–1927)Swedish" his electrolytic theory of dissociation"
1,904Sir William Ramsay(1852–1916)British" discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and his determination of their place in the periodic system"
1,905Adolf von Baeyer(1835–1917)German" the advancement of organic chemistry and the chemical industry, through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds"
1,906Henri Moissan(1852–1907)French" investigation and isolation of the element fluorine, and for electric furnace called after him"
1,907Eduard Buchner(1860–1917)German"for his biochemical researches and his discovery of cell-free fermentation"
1,908Ernest Rutherford(1871–1937)New Zealander"for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances"
1,909Wilhelm Ostwald(1853–1932)German, born in Latvia" his work on catalysis and for his investigations into the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibria and rates of reaction"
1,910Otto Wallach(1847–1931)German" his services to organic chemistry and the chemical industry by his pioneer work in the field of alicyclic compounds"
1,911Marie Curie, née Skłodowska(1867–1934)Polish French" 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"
1,912Victor Grignard(1871–1935)French"for the discovery of the [...] Grignard reagent"
Paul Sabatier(1854–1941)"for his method of hydrogenating organic compounds in the presence of finely disintegrated metals"
1,913Alfred Werner(1866–1919)Swiss" his work on the linkage of atoms in molecules [...] especially in inorganic chemistry"
1,914Theodore William Richards(1868–1928)American" his accurate determinations of the atomic weight of a large number of chemical elements"
1,915Richard Martin Willstätter(1872–1942)German"for his researches on plant pigments, especially chlorophyll"
1,916Not awarded
1,918Fritz Haber(1868–1934)German"for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements"
1,919Not awarded
1,920Walther Hermann Nernst(1864–1941)German" his work in thermochemistry"
1,921Frederick Soddy(1877–1956)British"for his contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances, and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes"
1,922Francis William Aston(1877–1945)British"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"
1,923Fritz Pregl(1869–1930)Yugoslavian Austrian"for his invention of the method of micro-analysis of organic substances"
1,924Not awarded
1,925Richard Adolf Zsigmondy(1865–1929)Austrian"for his demonstration of the heterogeneous nature of colloid solutions and for the methods he used"
1,926The (Theodor) Svedberg(1884–1971)Swedish"for his work on disperse systems"
1,927Heinrich Otto Wieland(1877–1957)German"for his investigations of the constitution of the bile acids and related substances"
1,928Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus(1876–1959)German" his research into the constitution of the sterols and their connection with the vitamins"
1,929Arthur Harden(1865–1940)British"for their investigations on the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes"
Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin(1873–1964)German Swedish
1,930Hans Fischer(1881–1945)German"for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of haemin"
1,931Carl Bosch(1874–1940)German" their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high pressure methods"
Friedrich Bergius(1884–1949)
1,932Irving Langmuir(1881–1957)American"for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry"
1,933Not awarded
1,934Harold Clayton Urey(1893–1981)American"for his discovery of heavy hydrogen"
1,935Frédéric Joliot(1900–1958)French" their synthesis of new radioactive elements"
Irène Joliot-Curie(1897–1956)
1,936Peter Debye(1884–1966)Dutch" molecular structure through his investigations on dipole moments and the diffraction of X-rays and electrons in gases"
1,937Walter Norman Haworth(1883–1950)British"for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C"
Paul Karrer(1889–1971)Swiss"for his investigations on carotenoids, flavins and vitamins A and B2"
1,938Richard Kuhn(1900–1967)German"for his work on carotenoids and vitamins"
1,939Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt(1903–1995)German"for his work on sex hormones"
Leopold Ružička(1887–1976)Yugoslavian Swiss"for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes"
1,940Not awarded
1,943George de Hevesy(1885–1966)Hungarian"for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes"
1,944Otto Hahn(1879–1968)German"for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei"
1,945Artturi Ilmari Virtanen(1895–1973)Finnish"for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method"
1,946James Batcheller Sumner(1887–1955)American"for his discovery that enzymes can be crystallized"
John Howard Northrop(1891–1987)"for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form"
Wendell Meredith Stanley(1904–1971)
1,947Sir Robert Robinson(1886–1975)British"for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids"
1,948Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius(1902–1971)Swedish"for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning the complex nature of the serum proteins"
1,949William Francis Giauque(1895–1982)Canadian American"for his contributions in the field of chemical thermodynamics, particularly concerning the behaviour of substances at extremely low temperatures"
1,950Otto Paul Hermann Diels(1876–1954)West German"for their discovery and development of the diene synthesis"
Kurt Alder(1902–1958)
1,951Edwin Mattison McMillan(1907–1991)American"for their discoveries in the chemistry of transuranium elements"
Glenn Theodore Seaborg(1912–1999)
1,952Archer John Porter Martin(1910–2002)British"for their invention of partition chromatography"
Richard Laurence Millington Synge(1914–1994)
1,953Hermann Staudinger(1881–1965)West German"for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry"
1,954Linus Pauling(1901–1994)American"for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances"
1,955Vincent du Vigneaud(1901–1978)American"for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone"
1,956Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood(1897–1967)British"for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions"
Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov(1896–1986)Soviet
1,957Lord (Alexander R.) Todd(1907–1997)British"for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes"
1,958Frederick Sanger(1918–2013)British"for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin"
1,959Jaroslav Heyrovský(1890–1967)Czechoslovak"for his discovery and development of the polarographic methods of analysis"
1,960Willard Frank Libby(1908–1980)American"for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science"
1,961Melvin Calvin(1911–1997)American"for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants"
1,962Max Ferdinand Perutz(1914–2002)Austrian British"for their studies of the structures of globular proteins"
John Cowdery Kendrew(1917–1997)British
1,963Karl Ziegler(1898–1973)West German"for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers"
Giulio Natta(1903–1979)Italian
1,964Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin(1910–1994)British"for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances"
1,965Robert Burns Woodward(1917–1979)American"for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis"
1,966Robert S. Mulliken(1896–1986)American"for his fundamental work concerning chemical bonds and the electronic structure of molecules by the molecular orbital method"
1,967Manfred Eigen(1927–2019)West German"for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equilibrium by means of very short pulses of energy"
Ronald George Wreyford Norrish(1897–1978)British
George Porter(1920–2002)
1,968Lars Onsager(1903–1976)Norwegian American"for the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes"
1,969Derek H. R. Barton(1918–1998)British"for their contributions to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry"
Odd Hassel(1897–1981)Norwegian
1,970Luis F. Leloir(1906–1987)Argentine"for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates"
1,971Gerhard Herzberg(1904–1999)West German Canadian"for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals"
1,972Christian B. Anfinsen(1916–1995)American"for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation"
Stanford Moore(1913–1982)"for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule"
William H. Stein(1911–1980)
1,973Ernst Otto Fischer(1918–2007)West German"for their pioneering work, performed independently, on the chemistry of the organometallic, so called sandwich compounds"
Geoffrey Wilkinson(1921–1996)British
1,974Paul J. Flory(1910–1985)American"for his fundamental work, both theoretical and experimental, in the physical chemistry of macromolecules"
1,975John Warcup Cornforth(1917–2013)Australian British"for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions"
Vladimir Prelog(1906–1998)Yugoslavian Swiss"for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions"
1,976William N. Lipscomb(1919–2011)American"for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding"
1,977Ilya Prigogine(1917–2003)Belgian"for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures"
1,978Peter D. Mitchell(1920–1992)British"for his contribution to the understanding of biological energy transfer through the formulation of the chemiosmotic theory"
1,979Herbert C. Brown(1912–2004)American"for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis"
Georg Wittig(1897–1987)West German
1,980Paul Berg(1926–2023)American"for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA"
Walter Gilbert(b. 1932)"for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids"
Frederick Sanger(1918–2013)British
1,981Kenichi Fukui(1918–1998)Japanese"for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions"
Roald Hoffmann(b. 1937)Polish American
1,982Aaron Klug(1926–2018)British"for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes"
1,983Henry Taube(1915–2005)Canadian American"for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes"
1,984Robert Bruce Merrifield(1921–2006)American"for his development of methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix"
1,985Herbert A. Hauptman(1917–2011)American"for their outstanding achievements in developing direct methods for the determination of crystal structures"
Jerome Karle(1918–2013)
1,986Dudley R. Herschbach(b. 1932)American"for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes"
Yuan T. Lee(b. 1936)Taiwanese
John C. Polanyi(b. 1929)Canadian
1,987Donald J. Cram(1919–2001)American"for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity"
Jean-Marie Lehn(b. 1939)French
Charles J. Pedersen(1904–1989)American
1,988Johann Deisenhofer(b. 1943)West German"for their determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre"
Robert Huber(b. 1937)
Hartmut Michel(b. 1948)
1,989Sidney Altman(1939–2022)Canadian American"for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA"
Thomas Cech(b. 1947)American
1,990Elias James Corey(b. 1928)American"for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis"
1,991Richard R. Ernst(1933–2021)Swiss"for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy"
1,992Rudolph A. Marcus(b. 1923)Canadian American"for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems"
1,993Kary B. Mullis(1944–2019)American"for contributions to the developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry [...] for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method"
Michael Smith(1932–2000)British Canadian"for contributions to the developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry [...] for his fundamental contributions to the establishment of oligonucleotide-based, site-directed mutagenesis and its development for protein studies"
1,994George A. Olah(1927–2017)Hungarian American"for his contribution to carbocation chemistry"
1,995Paul J. Crutzen(1933–2021)Dutch"for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone"
Mario J. Molina(1943–2020)Mexican
Frank Sherwood Rowland(1927–2012)American
1,996Robert F. Curl Jr.(1933–2022)American"for their discovery of fullerenes"
Sir Harold W. Kroto(1939–2016)British
Richard E. Smalley(1943–2005)American
1,997Paul D. Boyer(1918–2018)American"for their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)"
John E. Walker(b. 1941)British
Jens C. Skou(1918–2018)Danish"for the first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, Na, K -ATPase"
1,998Walter Kohn(1923–2016)Austrian American"for his development of the density-functional theory"
John A. Pople(1925–2004)British"for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry"
1,999Ahmed Zewail(1946–2016)Egyptian American"for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy"
2,000Alan J. Heeger(b. 1936)American"for their discovery and development of conductive polymers"
Alan G. MacDiarmid(1927–2007)New Zealander American
Hideki Shirakawa(b. 1936)Japanese
2,001William S. Knowles(1917–2012)American"for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions"
Ryōji Noyori(b. 1938)Japanese
K. Barry Sharpless(b. 1941)American"for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions"
2,002John B. Fenn(1917–2010)American"for the development of methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules [...] for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules"
Koichi Tanaka(b. 1959)Japanese
Kurt Wüthrich(b. 1938)Swiss"for the development of methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules [...] for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution"
2,003Peter Agre(b. 1949)American"for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes [...] for the discovery of water channels"
Roderick MacKinnon(b. 1956)"for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes [...] for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels"
2,004Aaron Ciechanover(b. 1947)Israeli"for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation"
Avram Hershko(b. 1937)
Irwin Rose(1926–2015)American
2,005Yves Chauvin(1930–2015)French"for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis"
Robert H. Grubbs(1942–2021)American
Richard R. Schrock(b. 1945)
2,006Roger D. Kornberg(b. 1947)American"for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription"
2,007Gerhard Ertl(b. 1936)German"for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces"
2,008Osamu Shimomura(1928–2018)Japanese"for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP"
Martin Chalfie(b. 1947)American
Roger Y. Tsien(1952–2016)
2,009Venkatraman Ramakrishnan(b. 1952)British American"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"
Thomas A. Steitz(1940–2018)American
Ada E. Yonath(b. 1939)Israeli
2,010Richard F. Heck(1931–2015)American"for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"
Ei-ichi Negishi(1935–2021)Japanese
Akira Suzuki(b. 1930)
2,011Dan Shechtman(b. 1941)Israeli American"for the discovery of quasicrystals"
2,012Robert Lefkowitz(b. 1943)American"for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors"
Brian Kobilka(b. 1955)
2,013Martin Karplus(1930–2024)Austrian American"for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems"
Michael Levitt(b. 1947)South African American British Israeli
Arieh Warshel(b. 1940)Israeli American
2,014Eric Betzig(b. 1960)American"for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"
Stefan W. Hell(b. 1962)Romanian German
William E. Moerner(b. 1953)American
2,015Tomas Lindahl(b. 1938)Swedish British"for mechanistic studies of DNA repair"
Paul L. Modrich(b. 1946)American
Aziz Sancar(b. 1946)Turkish
2,016Jean-Pierre Sauvage(b. 1944)French"for the design and synthesis of molecular machines"
Fraser Stoddart(1942–2024)British American
Ben Feringa(b. 1951)Dutch
2,017Jacques Dubochet(b. 1942)Swiss"for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution"
Joachim Frank(b. 1940)German American
Richard Henderson(b. 1945)British
2,018Frances Arnold(b. 1956)American"for the directed evolution of enzymes"
George Smith(b. 1941)"for the phage display of peptides and antibodies"
Sir Gregory Winter(b. 1951)British
2,019John B. Goodenough(1922–2023)American"for the development of lithium ion batteries"
M. Stanley Whittingham(b. 1941)British American
Akira Yoshino(b. 1948)Japanese
2,020Emmanuelle Charpentier(b. 1968)French"for the development of a method for genome editing"
Jennifer Doudna(b. 1964)American
2,021Benjamin List(b. 1968)German"for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis"
David W.C. MacMillan(b. 1968)British
2,022Carolyn Bertozzi(b. 1966)American"for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry"
Morten Meldal(b. 1954)Danish
K. Barry Sharpless(b. 1941)American
2,023Moungi G. Bawendi(b. 1961)French Tunisian American"for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots"
Louis E. Brus(1943–2026)American
Alexey Ekimov(b. 1945)Russian
2,024David Baker(b. 1962)American"for computational protein design"
Demis Hassabis(b. 1976)British"for protein structure prediction"
John M. Jumper(b. 1985)American
2,025Susumu Kitagawa(b. 1951)Japanese"for the development of metal–organic frameworks"
Richard Robson(b. 1937)British
Omar M. Yaghi(b. 1965)Jordanian American Saudi
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