Chemistry Nobel prizes by year, annotated list

YearNameLifeFieldMotivation
1901Jacobus H. van 't Hoff1852-1911chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions"
1902Emil Fischer1852-1919organic chemistry"in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his work on sugar and purine syntheses"
1903Svante Arrhenius1859-1927chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation"
1904Sir William Ramsay1852-1916inorganic chemistry, nuclear chemistry"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"
1905Adolf von Baeyer1835-1917industrial chemistry, organic chemistry"in recognition of his services in the advancement of organic chemistry and the chemical industry, through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds"
1906Henri Moissan1852-1907inorganic chemistry, nuclear chemistry"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"
1907Eduard Buchner1860-1917biochemistry"for his biochemical researches and his discovery of cell-free fermentation"
1908Ernest Rutherford1871-1937nuclear chemistry"for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances"
1909Wilhelm Ostwald1853-1932physical chemistry"in recognition of his work on catalysis and for his investigations into the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibria and rates of reaction"
1910Otto Wallach1847-1931industrial chemistry, organic chemistry"in recognition of his services to organic chemistry and the chemical industry by his pioneer work in the field of alicyclic compounds"
1911Marie Curie1867-1934nuclear chemistry"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"
1912Victor Grignard1871-1935organic chemistry"for the discovery of the so-called Grignard reagent, which in recent years has greatly advanced the progress of organic chemistry"
1912Paul Sabatier1854-1941organic chemistry"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"
1913Alfred Werner1866-1919inorganic chemistry"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"
1914Theodore W. Richards1868-1928physical chemistry"in recognition of his accurate determinations of the atomic weight of a large number of chemical elements"
1915Richard Willstätter1872-1942natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his researches on plant pigments, especially chlorophyll"
1918Fritz Haber1868-1934industrial chemistry, inorganic chemistry"for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements"
1920Walther Nernst1864-1941chemical thermodynamics, physical chemistry"in recognition of his work in thermochemistry"
1921Frederick Soddy1877-1956nuclear chemistry"for his contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances, and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes"
1922Francis W. Aston1877-1945physical chemistry"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"
1923Fritz Pregl1869-1930analytical chemistry"for his invention of the method of micro-analysis of organic substances"
1925Richard Zsigmondy1865-1929colloidal chemistry, physical chemistry"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"
1926The Svedberg1884-1971colloidal chemistry, physical chemistry"for his work on disperse systems"
1927Heinrich Wieland1877-1957natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his investigations of the constitution of the bile acids and related substances"
1928Adolf Windaus1876-1959natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for the services rendered through his research into the constitution of the sterols and their connection with the vitamins"
1929Arthur Harden1865-1940biochemistry"for their investigations on the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes"
1929Hans von Euler-Chelpin1873-1964biochemistry"for their investigations on the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes"
1930Hans Fischer1881-1945natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of haemin"
1931Carl Bosch1874-1940industrial chemistry"in recognition of their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high pressure methods"
1931Friedrich Bergius1884-1949industrial chemistry"in recognition of their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high pressure methods"
1932Irving Langmuir1881-1957physical chemistry"for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry"
1934Harold C. Urey1893-1981nuclear chemistry, physical chemistry"for his discovery of heavy hydrogen"
1935Irène Joliot-Curie1897-1956nuclear chemistry"in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements"
1936Peter Debye1884-1966physical chemistry, structural chemistry"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"
1935Frédéric Joliot1900-1958nuclear chemistry"in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements"
1937Norman Haworth1883-1950natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C"
1937Paul Karrer1889-1971natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his investigations on carotenoids, flavins and vitamins A and B2"
1938Richard Kuhn1900-1967natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his work on carotenoids and vitamins"
1939Adolf Butenandt1903-1995natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his work on sex hormones"
1939Leopold Ruzicka1887-1976natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes"
1943George de Hevesy1885-1966inorganic chemistry, nuclear chemistry"for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes"
1944Otto Hahn1879-1968nuclear chemistry"for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei"
1945Artturi Virtanen1895-1973agricultural chemistry"for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method"
1946James B. Sumner1887-1955biochemistry"for his discovery that enzymes can be crystallized"
1946John H. Northrop1891-1987biochemistry"for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form"
1946Wendell M. Stanley1904-1971biochemistry"for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form"
1947Sir Robert Robinson1886-1975natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids"
1948Arne Tiselius1902-1971analytical biochemistry, physical chemistry"for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning the complex nature of the serum proteins"
1949William F. Giauque1895-1982chemical thermodynamics, physical chemistry"for his contributions in the field of chemical thermodynamics, particularly concerning the behaviour of substances at extremely low temperatures"
1950Otto Diels1876-1954organic chemistry"for their discovery and development of the diene synthesis"
1950Kurt Alder1902-1958organic chemistry"for their discovery and development of the diene synthesis"
1951Edwin M. McMillan1907-1991nuclear chemistry"for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements"
1951Glenn T. Seaborg1912-1999nuclear chemistry"for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements"
1952Archer J.P. Martin1910-2002analytical chemistry"for their invention of partition chromatography"
1952Richard L.M. Synge1914-1994analytical chemistry"for their invention of partition chromatography"
1953Hermann Staudinger1881-1965polymer chemistry"for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry"
1954Linus Pauling1901-1994chemical bonding, theoretical chemistry"for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances"
1955Vincent du Vigneaud1901-1978biochemistry"for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone"
1956Sir Cyril Hinshelwood1897-1967chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions"
1956Nikolay Semenov1896-1986chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions"
1957Lord Todd1907-1997biochemistry"for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes"
1958Frederick Sanger1918-2013biochemistry"for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin"
1959Jaroslav Heyrovsky1890-1967analytical chemistry"for his discovery and development of the polarographic methods of analysis"
1960Willard F. Libby1908-1980nuclear chemistry"for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science"
1961Melvin Calvin1911-1997biochemistry"for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants"
1962Max F. Perutz1914-2002biochemistry, structural chemistry"for their studies of the structures of globular proteins"
1962John C. Kendrew1917-1997biochemistry, structural chemistry"for their studies of the structures of globular proteins"
1963Karl Ziegler1898-1973industrial chemistry, polymer chemistry"for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers"
1963Giulio Natta1903-1979industrial chemistry, polymer chemistry"for their discoveries in the field of the chemistry and technology of high polymers"
1964Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin1910-1994biochemistry, structural chemistry"for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances"
1965Robert B. Woodward1917-1979natural products chemistry, organic chemistry"for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis"
1966Robert S. Mulliken1896-1986chemical bonding, theoretical chemistry"for his fundamental work concerning chemical bonds and the electronic structure of molecules by the molecular orbital method"
1967Manfred Eigen1927-chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equilibrium by means of very short pulses of energy"
1967Ronald G.W. Norrish1897-1978chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equilibrium by means of very short pulses of energy"
1967George Porter1920-2002chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equilibrium by means of very short pulses of energy"
1968Lars Onsager1903-1976chemical thermodynamics, physical chemistry"for the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes"
1969Derek Barton1918-1998organic chemistry, stereochemistry"for their contributions to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry"
1969Odd Hassel1897-1981organic chemistry, stereochemistry"for their contributions to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry"
1970Luis Leloir1906-1987biochemistry"for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates"
1971Gerhard Herzberg1904-1999molecular structures, physical chemistry"for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals"
1972Christian Anfinsen1916-1995analytical biochemistry, biochemistry"for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation"
1972Stanford Moore1913-1982analytical biochemistry, biochemistry"for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule"
1972William H. Stein1911-1980analytical biochemistry, biochemistry"for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule"
1973Ernst Otto Fischer1918-2007inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry"for their pioneering work, performed independently, on the chemistry of the organometallic, so called sandwich compounds"
1973Geoffrey Wilkinson1921-1996inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry"for their pioneering work, performed independently, on the chemistry of the organometallic, so called sandwich compounds"
1974Paul J. Flory1910-1985polymer chemistry"for his fundamental achievements, both theoretical and experimental, in the physical chemistry of the macromolecules"
1975John Cornforth1917-2013organic chemistry, stereochemistry"for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions"
1975Vladimir Prelog1906-1998organic chemistry, stereochemistry"for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions"
1976William Lipscomb1919-2011chemical structure, theoretical chemistry"for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding"
1977Ilya Prigogine1917-2003chemical thermodynamics, physical chemistry"for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures"
1978Peter Mitchell1920-1992biochemistry"for his contribution to the understanding of biological energy transfer through the formulation of the chemiosmotic theory"
1979Herbert C. Brown1912-2004organic chemistry"for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis"
1979Georg Wittig1897-1987organic chemistry"for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis"
1980Paul Berg1926-biochemistry"for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA"
1980Walter Gilbert1932-biochemistry"for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids"
1980Frederick Sanger1918-2013biochemistry"for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids"
1981Kenichi Fukui1918-1998theoretical chemistry"for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions"
1981Roald Hoffmann1937-theoretical chemistry"for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions"
1982Aaron Klug1926-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes"
1983Henry Taube1915-2005inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry"for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes"
1984Bruce Merrifield1921-2006biochemistry"for his development of methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix"
1985Herbert A. Hauptman1917-2011physical chemistry, structural chemistry"for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures"
1985Jerome Karle1918-2013physical chemistry, structural chemistry"for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures"
1986Dudley R. Herschbach1932-chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes"
1986Yuan T. Lee1936-chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes"
1986John C. Polanyi1929-chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes"
1987Donald J. Cram1919-2001organic chemistry"for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity"
1987Jean-Marie Lehn1939-organic chemistry"for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity"
1987Charles J. Pedersen1904-1989organic chemistry"for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity"
1988Johann Deisenhofer1943-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre"
1988Robert Huber1937-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre"
1988Hartmut Michel1948-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre"
1989Sidney Altman1939-biochemistry"for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA"
1989Thomas R. Cech1947-biochemistry"for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA"
1990Elias James Corey1928-organic chemistry"for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis"
1991Richard R. Ernst1933-physical chemical methodology"for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy"
1992Rudolph A. Marcus1923-theoretical chemistry"for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems"
1993Kary B. Mullis1944-biochemistry"for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method"
1993Michael Smith1932-2000biochemistry"for his fundamental contributions to the establishment of oligonucleotide-based, site-directed mutagenesis and its development for protein studies"
1994George A. Olah1927-organic chemistry"for his contribution to carbocation chemistry"
1995Paul J. Crutzen1933-atmospheric and environmental chemistry"for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone"
1995Mario J. Molina1943-atmospheric and environmental chemistry"for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone"
1995F. Sherwood Rowland1927-2012atmospheric and environmental chemistry"for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone"
1996Robert F. Curl Jr.1933-organic chemistry, structural chemistry"for their discovery of fullerenes"
1996Sir Harold Kroto1939-2016organic chemistry, structural chemistry"for their discovery of fullerenes"
1996Richard E. Smalley1943-2005organic chemistry, structural chemistry"for their discovery of fullerenes"
1997Jens C. Skou1918-biochemistry"for the first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, Na+, K+ -ATPase"
1997Paul D. Boyer1918-biochemistry"for their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)"
1997John E. Walker1941-biochemistry"for their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)"
1998Walter Kohn1923-2016theoretical chemistry"for his development of the density-functional theory"
1998John Pople1925-2004theoretical chemistry"for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry"
1999Ahmed Zewail1946-2016chemical kinetics, physical chemistry"for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy"
2000Alan Heeger1936-physical chemistry"for the discovery and development of conductive polymers"
2000Alan MacDiarmid1927-2007physical chemistry"for the discovery and development of conductive polymers"
2000Hideki Shirakawa1936-physical chemistry"for the discovery and development of conductive polymers"
2001William Knowles1917-2012industrial chemistry, organic chemistry"for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions"
2001Ryoji Noyori1938-industrial chemistry, organic chemistry"for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions"
2001Barry Sharpless1941-industrial chemistry, organic chemistry"for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions"
2002John B. Fenn1917-2010physical chemical methodology"for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules"
2002Koichi Tanaka1959-physical chemical methodology"for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules"
2002Kurt Wüthrich1938-physical chemical methodology"for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution"
2003Peter Agre1949-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for the discovery of water channels"
2003Roderick MacKinnon1956-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels"
2004Aaron Ciechanover1947-biochemistry"for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation"
2004Avram Hershko1937-biochemistry"for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation"
2004Irwin Rose1926-2015biochemistry"for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation"
2005Yves Chauvin1930-2015organic chemistry"for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis"
2005Robert H. Grubbs1942-organic chemistry"for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis"
2005Richard R. Schrock1945-organic chemistry"for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis"
2006Roger D. Kornberg1947-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription"
2007Gerhard Ertl1936-inorganic chemistry, surface chemistry"for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces"
2008Osamu Shimomura1928-biochemistry"for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP"
2008Martin Chalfie1947-biochemistry"for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP"
2008Roger Y. Tsien1952-2016biochemistry"for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP"
2009Venkatraman Ramakrishnan1952-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"
2009Thomas A. Steitz1940-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"
2009Ada E. Yonath1939-biochemistry, structural chemistry"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"
2010Richard F. Heck1931-2015organic chemistry"for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"
2010Ei-ichi Negishi1935-organic chemistry"for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"
2010Akira Suzuki1930-organic chemistry"for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"
2011Dan Shechtman1941-physical chemistry, structural chemistry"for the discovery of quasicrystals"
2012Robert J. Lefkowitz1943-biochemistry"for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors"
2012Brian Kobilka1955-biochemistry"for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors"
2013Martin Karplus1930-biochemistry, physical chemistry, theoretical chemistry"for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems"
2013Michael Levitt1947-biochemistry, physical chemistry, theoretical chemistry"for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems"
2013Arieh Warshel1940-biochemistry, physical chemistry, theoretical chemistry"for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems"
2014Eric Betzig1960-physical chemistry"for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"
2014Stefan W. Hell1962-physical chemistry"for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"
2014William E. Moerner1953-physical chemistry"for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"
2015Tomas Lindahl1938-"for mechanistic studies of DNA repair"
2015Paul Modrich1946-"for mechanistic studies of DNA repair"
2015Aziz Sancar1946-"for mechanistic studies of DNA repair"
2016Jean-Pierre Sauvage1944-"for the design and synthesis of molecular machines"
2016Sir J. Fraser Stoddart1942-"for the design and synthesis of molecular machines"
2016Bernard L. Feringa1951-"for the design and synthesis of molecular machines"