VI. Reading.

Year

Laureate

Country

Research

1901

Jacobus H. van't Hoff

Netherlands

Discovered laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions

1902

Hermann Emil Fischer

Germany

Synthetic studies of sugar and purine groups

1903

Svante A. Arrhenius

Sweden

Theory of electrolytic dissociation

1904

Sir William Ramsay

Great Britain

Discovered the noble gases

1905

Adolf von Baeyer

Germany

Organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds

1906

Henri Moissan

France

Studied and isolated the element fluorine

1907

Eduard Buchner

Germany

Biochemical studies, discovered fermentation without cells

1908

Sir Ernest Rutherford

Great Britain

Decay of the elements, chemistry of radioactive substances

1909

Wilhelm Ostwald

Germany

Catalysis, chemical equilibria, and reaction rates

1910

Otto Wallach

Germany

Alicyclic compounds

1911

Marie Curie

Poland-France

Discovered radium and polonium

1912

Victor Grignard Paul Sabatier

France France

Grignard's reagent Hydrogenation of organic compounds in the presence of finely divided metals

1913

Alfred Werner

Switzerland

Bonding relations of atoms in molecules (inorganic chemistry)

1914

Theodore W. Richards

United States

Determined atomic weights

1915

Richard M. Willst?tter

Germany

Investigated plant pigments, particularly chlorophyll

1916

The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1917

The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1918

Fritz Haber

Germany

Synthesized ammonia from its elements

1919

The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1920

Walther H. Nernst

Germany

Studies on thermodynamics

1921

Frederick Soddy

Great Britain

Chemistry of radioactive substances, occurrence and nature of the isotopes

1922

Francis W. Aston

Great Britain

Discovered several isotopes, mass spectrograph

1923

Fritz Pregl

Austria

Microanalysis of organic compounds

1924

The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1925

Richard A. Zsigmondy

Germany, Austria

Colloid chemistry (ultramicroscope)

1926

Theodor Svedberg

Sweden

Disperse systems (ultracentrifuge)

1927

Heinrich O. Wieland

Germany

Constitution of bile acids

1928

Adolf O. R. Windaus

Germany

Study of sterols and their relation with vitamins (vitamin D)

1929

Sir Arthur Harden Hans von Euler-Chelpin

Great Britain Sweden, Germany

Studied fermentation of sugars and enzymes

1930

Hans Fischer

Germany

Studied blood and plant pigments, synthesized hemin

1931

Friedrich Bergius Karl Bosch

Germany Germany

Developed chemical high-pressure processes

1932

Irving Langmuir

United States

Surface chemistry

1933

The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.

1934

Harold C. Urey

United States

Discovery of heavy hydrogen (deuterium)

1935

Jean Fr?d?ric Joliot Ir?ne Joliot-Curie

France France

Syntheses of new radioactive elements (artificial radioactivity)

1936

Peter J. W. Debye

Netherlands, Germany

Studied dipole moments and the diffraction of X rays and electron beams by gases

1937

Walter N. Haworth Paul Karrer

Great Britain Switzerland

Studied carbohydrates and vitamin C Studied carotenoids and flavins and vitamins A and B2

1938

Richard Kuhn

Germany

Studied carotenoids and vitamins

1939

Adolf F. J. Butenandt Leopold Ruzicka

Germany Switzerland

Studies on sexual hormones Studied polymethylenes and higher terpenes

1940

The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section

1941

The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.

1942

The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.

1943

Georg de Hevesy

Hungary

Application of isotopes as indicators in the investigation of chemical processes

1944

Otto Hahn

Germany

Discovered nuclear fission of atoms

1945

Artturi I. Virtanen

Finland

Discoveries in the area of agricultural and food chemistry, method of preservation of fodder

1946

James B. Sumner John H. Northrop Wendell M. Stanley

United States United States United States

Prepared enzymes and virus proteins in pure form Crystallizability of enzymes

1947

Sir Robert Robinson

Great Britain

Studied alkaloids

1948

Arne W. K. Tiselius

Sweden

Analysis using electrophoresis and adsorption, discoveries concerning serum proteins

1949

William F. Giauque

United States

Contributions to chemical thermodynamics, properties at extremely low temperatures (adiabatic demagnetization)

1950

Kurt Alder Otto P. H. Diels

Germany Germany

Developed diene synthesis

1951

Edwin M. McMillan Glenn T. Seaborg

United States United States

Discoveries in the chemistry of transuranium elements

1952

Archer J. P. Martin Richard L. M. Synge

Great Britain Great Britain

Invented distribution chromatography

1953

Hermann Staudinger

Germany

Discoveries in the area of macromolecular chemistry

1954

Linus C. Pauling

United States

Studied the nature of the chemical bond (molecular structure of proteins)

1955

Vincent du Vigneaud

United States

Synthesized a polypeptide hormone

1956

Sir Cyril N. Hinshelwood Nikolai N. Semenov

Great Britain Soviet Union

Mechanisms of chemical reactions

1957

Sir Alexander R. Todd

Great Britain

Studied nucleotides and their coenzymes

1958

Frederick Sanger

Great Britain

Structure of proteins, especially insulin

1959

Jaroslav Heyrovsky

Czech Republic

Polarography

1960

Willard F. Libby

United States

Application of carbon 14 for age determinations (radiocarbon dating)

1961

Melvin Calvin

United States

Studied the assimilation of carbonic acid by plants (photosynthesis)

1962

John C. Kendrew Max F. Perutz

Great Britain Great Britain, Austria

Studied the structures of globulin proteins

1963

Giulio Natta Karl Ziegler

Italy Germany

Chemistry and technology of high polymers

1964

Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin

Great Britain

Structure determination of biologically important substances by means of X rays

1965

Robert B. Woodward

United States

Syntheses of natural products

1966

Robert S. Mulliken

United States

Studied chemical bonds and the electron structure of molecules using the orbital method

1967

Manfred Eigen Ronald G. W. Norrish George Porter

Germany Great Britain Great Britain

Investigated extremely fast chemical reactions

1968

Lars Onsager

United States, Norway

Studied the thermodynamics of irreversible processes

1969

Derek H. R. Barton Odd Hassel

Great Britain Norway

Development of the concept of conformation

1970

Luis F. Leloir

Argentina

Discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates

1971

Gerhard Herzberg

Canada

Electron structure and geometry of molecules, particularly of free radicals (molecular spectroscopy)

1972

Christian B. Anfinsen Stanford Moore William H. Stein

United States United States United States

Studied ribonuclease (Anfinsen) Studied the active center of ribonuclease (Moore & Stein)

1973

Ernst Otto Fischer Geoffrey Wilkinson

Germany Great Britain

Chemistry of metal-organic sandwich compounds

1974

Paul J. Flory

United States

Physical chemistry of macromolecules

1975

Sir John Cornforth Vladimir Prelog

Australia - Great Britain Yugoslavia - Switzerland

Stereochemistry of enzyme catalysis reactions Studied the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions

1976

William N. Lipscomb

United States

Structure of boranes

1977

Ilya Prigogine

Belgium

Contributions to the thermodynamics of irreversible processes, particularly to the theory of dissipative structures

1978

Peter Mitchell

Great Britain

Studied biological energy transfer, development of the chemiosmotic theory

1979

Herbert C. Brown George Wittig

United States Germany

Development of (organic) boron and phosphorous compounds

1980

Paul Berg Walter Gilbert Frederick Sanger

United States United States Great Britain

Studied the biochemistry of nucleic acids, particularly hybrid DNA (technology of gene surgery) (Berg) Determined base sequences in nucleic acids (Gilbert & Sanger)

1981

Kenichi Fukui Roald Hoffmann

Japan United States

Theories on the progress of chemical reactions (frontier orbital theory)

1982

Aaron Klug

South Africa

Developed crystallographic methods for the elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid protein complexes

1983

Henry Taube

Canada

Reaction mechanisms of electron transfer, especially with metal complexes

1984

Robert Bruce Merrifield

United States

Method for the preparation of peptides and proteins

1985

Herbert A. Hauptman Jerome Karle

United States United States

Developed direct methods for the determination of crystal structures

1986

Dudley Herschbach Yuan T. Lee John C. Polanyi

United States United States Canada

Dynamics of chemical elementary processes

1987

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

United States United States France

Development of molecules with structurally specific interaction of high selectivity

1988

Johann Deisenhofer Robert Huber Hartmut Michel

Germany Germany Germany

Determined the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction center

1989

Thomas R. Cech Sidney Altman

United States United States

Discovered the catalytic properties of ribonucleic acid (RNA)

1990

Elias James Corey

United States

Developed novel methods for the synthesis of complex natural compounds (retrosynthetic analysis)

1991

Richard R. Ernst

Switzerland

Developed high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR)

1992

Rudolph A. Marcus

Canada - United States

Theories of electron transfer

1993

Kary B. Mullis Michael Smith

United States Great Britain - Canada

Invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) Development of site specific mutagenesis

1994

George A. Olah

United States

Carbocations

1995

Paul Crutzen Mario Molina F. Sherwood Rowland

Netherlands Mexico - United States United States

Work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone

1996

Harold W. Kroto Robert F. Curl, Jr. Richard E. Smalley

Great Britain United States United States

Discovered fullerenes

1997

Paul D. Boyer John E. Walker Jens C. Skou

United States Great Britain Denmark

Elucidated the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, Na⁺, K⁺-ATPase

1998

Walter Kohn John A. Pople

United States Great Britain

Development of the density-functional theory (Kohn) Development of computational methods in quantum chemistry (GAUSSIAN computer programs) (Pope)

1999

Ahmed H. Zewail

Egypt - United States

Studied the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy

2000

Alan J. Heeger Alan G. MacDiarmid Hideki Shirakawa

United States United States Japan

Discovered and developed conductive polymers

2001

William S. Knowles Ryoji Noyori K. Barry Sharpless

United States Japan United States

Work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions (Knowles & Noyori) Work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions (Sharpless)

2002

John B. Fenn Koichi Tanaka Kurt Wьthrich

United States Japan Switzerland

Developed soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules (Fenn & Tanaka) Developed nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution (Wьthrich)

2003

Peter Agre Roderick MacKinnon

United States United States

Discovered water channels for transport of water in cell membranes Performed structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels in cells

2004

Aaron Ciechanover Avram Hershko Irwin Rose

Israel Israel United States

Discovered and elucidated the process of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation

2005

Yves Chauvin Robert H. Grubbs Richard R. Schrock

France United States United States

Developed the metathesis method of organic synthesis, allowing for advances in 'green' chemistry

2006

Roger D. Kornberg

United States

"for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription"