The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded 113 times to 188 Nobel Prize laureates between 1901 and 2021.
Marie Curie was the first woman to win the chemistry honour. She was also the first woman to win in two fields, thanks to a 1903 award in physics with her husband Pierre.
The family had another chemistry win in 1935 when Irene Joliot-Curie picked up the prize and they are still the only mother-daughter winners.
2021
Benjamin List and David MacMillan “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”
2020
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing”
2019
John B Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino “for the development of lithium-ion batteries”
2018
Frances H Arnold “for the directed evolution of enzymes”
George P Smith and Sir Gregory P Winter “for the phage display of peptides and antibodies”
2017
Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson “for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution”
2016
Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L Feringa ”for the design and synthesis of molecular machines”
2015
Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar “for mechanistic studies of DNA repair”
2014
Eric Betzig, Stefan W Hell and William E Moerner “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”
2013
Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems”
2012
Robert J Lefkowitz and Brian K Kobilka “for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors”
2011
Dan Shechtman “for the discovery of quasicrystals”
2010
Richard F Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki “for palladium-catalysed cross couplings in organic synthesis”
2009
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A Steitz and Ada E Yonath “for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome”
2008
Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y Tsien “for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP”
2007
Gerhard Ertl ”for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces”
2006
Roger D Kornberg ”for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription”
2005
Yves Chauvin, Robert H Grubbs and Richard R Schrock ”for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis”
2004
Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose ”for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation”
2003
For discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes:
Peter Agre ”for the discovery of water channels”
Roderick MacKinnon ”for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels”
2002
For the development of methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules:
John B Fenn and Koichi Tanaka ”for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules”.
Kurt Wuthrich ”for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution”
2001
William S Knowles and Ryoji Noyori ”for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions”
K Barry Sharpless ”for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions”
2000
Alan J Heeger, Alan G MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa ”for the discovery and development of conductive polymers”
1999
Ahmed H Zewail ”for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy”
1998
Walter Kohn ”for his development of the density-functional theory”
John A Pople ”for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry”
1997
Paul D Boyer and John E. Walker ”for their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)”
Jens C Skou ”for the first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, Na+, K+ -ATPase”
1996
Robert F Curl Jr, Sir Harold W. Kroto and Richard E Smalley “for their discovery of fullerenes”
1995
Paul J Crutzen, Mario J Molina and F Sherwood Rowland “for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone”
1994
George A Olah “for his contribution to carbocation chemistry”
1993
For contributions to the developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry:
Kary B Mullis ”for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method”
Michael Smith ”for his fundamental contributions to the establishment of oligonucleotide-based, site-directed mutagenesis and its development for protein studies”
1992
Rudolph A Marcus ”for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems”
1991
Richard R Ernst ”for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy”
1990
Elias James Corey ”for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis”
1989
Sidney Altman and Thomas R Cech ”for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA”
1988
Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber and Hartmut Michel ”for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre”
1987
Donald J Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn and Charles J Pedersen ”for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity”
1986
Dudley R Herschbach, Yuan T Lee and John C Polanyi ”for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes”
1985
Herbert A Hauptman and Jerome Karle “for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures”
1984
Robert Bruce Merrifield “for his development of methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix”
1983
Henry Taube “for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes”
1982
Aaron Klug “for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes”
1981
Kenichi Fukui and Roald Hoffmann “for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions”
1980
Paul Berg ”for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA”
Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger “for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids”
1979
Herbert C Brown and Georg Wittig “for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis”
1978
Peter D Mitchell “for his contribution to the understanding of biological energy transfer through the formulation of the chemiosmotic theory”
1977
Ilya Prigogine “for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures”
1976
William N Lipscomb “for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding”
1975
John Warcup Cornforth “for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions”
Vladimir Prelog ”for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions”
1974
Paul J Flory ”for his fundamental achievements, both theoretical and experimental, in the physical chemistry of the macromolecules”
1973
Ernst Otto Fischer and Geoffrey Wilkinson “for their pioneering work, performed independently, on the chemistry of the organometallic, so called sandwich compounds”
1972
Christian B Anfinsen “for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation”
Stanford Moore and William H Stein “for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule”
1971
Gerhard Herzberg “for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals”
1970
Luis F Leloir ”for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates”
1969
Derek H R Barton and Odd Hassel “for their contributions to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry”
1968
Lars Onsager “for the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes”
1967
Manfred Eigen, Ronald George Wreyford Norrish and George Porter ”for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equilibrium by means of very short pulses of energy”
1966
Robert S Mulliken “for his fundamental work concerning chemical bonds and the electronic structure of molecules by the molecular orbital method”
1965
Robert Burns Woodward “for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis”
1964
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin ”for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances”
1963
Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta “for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers”
1962
Max Ferdinand Perutz and John Cowdery Kendrew “for their studies of the structures of globular proteins”
1961
Melvin Calvin “for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants”
1960
Willard Frank Libby “for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science”
1959
Jaroslav Heyrovsky “for his discovery and development of the polarographic methods of analysis”
1958
Frederick Sanger “for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin”
1957
Lord Alexander R Todd “for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes”
1956
Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood and Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov ”for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions”
1955
Vincent du Vigneaud ”for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone”
1954
Linus Carl Pauling ”for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances”
1953
Hermann Staudinger “for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry”
1952
Archer John Porter Martin and Richard Laurence Millington Synge “for their invention of partition chromatography”
1951
Edwin Mattison McMillan and Glenn Theodore Seaborg “for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements”
1950
Otto Paul Hermann Diels and Kurt Alder “for their discovery and development of the diene synthesis”
1949
William Francis Giauque “for his contributions in the field of chemical thermodynamics, particularly concerning the behaviour of substances at extremely low temperatures”
1948
Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius “for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning the complex nature of the serum proteins”
1947
Sir Robert Robinson ”for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids”
1946
James Batcheller Sumner “for his discovery that enzymes can be crystallized”
John Howard Northrop and Wendell Meredith Stanley ”for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form”
1945
Artturi Ilmari Virtanen “for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method”
1944
Otto Hahn “for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei”
1943
George de Hevesy “for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes”
1942
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with one-third allocated to the Main Fund and with two-thirds to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1941
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with one-third allocated to the Main Fund and with two-thirds to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1940
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with one-third allocated to the Main Fund and with two-thirds to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1939
Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt “for his work on sex hormones”
Leopold Ruzicka “for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes”
1938
Richard Kuhn ”for his work on carotenoids and vitamins”
1937
Walter Norman Haworth “for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C”
Paul Karrer “for his investigations on carotenoids, flavins and vitamins A and B2”
1936
Petrus (Peter) Josephus Wilhelmus 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”
1935
Frederic Joliot and Irene Joliot-Curie “in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements”
1934
Harold Clayton Urey “for his discovery of heavy hydrogen”
1933
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with one-third allocated to the Main Fund and with two-thirds to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1932
Irving Langmuir “for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry”
1931
Carl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius ”in recognition of their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high pressure methods”
1930
Hans Fischer “for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of haemin”
1929
Arthur Harden and Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin “for their investigations on the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes”
1928
Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus ”for the services rendered through his research into the constitution of the sterols and their connection with the vitamins”
1927
Heinrich Otto Wieland “for his investigations of the constitution of the bile acids and related substances”
1926
The (Theodor) Svedberg ”for his work on disperse systems”
1925
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”
1924
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1923
Fritz Pregl “for his invention of the method of micro-analysis of organic substances”
1922
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”
1921
Frederick Soddy ”for his contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances, and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes”
1920
Walther Hermann Nernst “in recognition of his work in thermochemistry”
1919
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1918
Fritz Haber “for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements”
1917
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1916
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
1915
Richard Martin Willstätter “for his researches on plant pigments, especially chlorophyll”
1914
Theodore William Richards ”in recognition of his accurate determinations of the atomic weight of a large number of chemical elements”
1913
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”
1912
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”
1911
Marie Curie, née Sklodowska “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”
1910
Otto Wallach “in recognition of his services to organic chemistry and the chemical industry by his pioneer work in the field of alicyclic compounds”
1909
Wilhelm Ostwald “in recognition of his work on catalysis and for his investigations into the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibria and rates of reaction”
1908
Ernest Rutherford “for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances”
1907
Eduard Buchner “for his biochemical researches and his discovery of cell-free fermentation”
1906
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”
1905
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm 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”
1904
Sir 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”
1903
Svante August Arrhenius “in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation”
1902
Hermann Emil Fischer ”in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his work on sugar and purine syntheses”
1901
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”
