Explore Complete list of Nobel Chemistry Prize winners from 1901 to 2025 with names, year, country, and award details individuals or teams who make significant contributions to the field of chemistry.
Chemistory Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded every year to scientists who make amazing discoveries in chemistry. It celebrates work that helps us understand how chemicals and reactions shape the world around us. Many winners have changed our lives by improving medicine, creating new materials, or discovering ways to generate energy. The prize comes with a gold medal, a diploma, and a cash award. Since 1901, it has honored breakthroughs like discovering new elements, studying DNA, inventing useful chemical methods, and designing life-saving medicines.
Full List of Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry (1901-2025)
| Year | Laureate(s) | Country | Given award for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Jacobus H. van 't Hoff | Netherlands | Discovery of laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure |
| 1902 | Hermann Emil Fischer | Germany | Work on sugars and purine synthesis |
| 1903 | Svante A. Arrhenius | Sweden | Electrolytic theory of dissociation |
| 1904 | Sir William Ramsay | United Kingdom | Discovery of inert gases and their place in the periodic table |
| 1905 | Adolf von Baeyer | Germany | Advances in organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds |
| 1906 | Henri Moissan | France | Isolation of fluorine and development of the Moissan furnace |
| 1907 | Eduard Buchner | Germany | Discovery of cell-free fermentation |
| 1908 | Ernest Rutherford | United Kingdom | Research on radioactive substances and element disintegration |
| 1909 | Wilhelm Ostwald | Germany | Work on catalysis and chemical equilibria |
| 1910 | Otto Wallach | Germany | Pioneering work on alicyclic compounds |
| 1911 | Marie Skłodowska-Curie | France/Poland | Discovery and study of radium and polonium |
| 1912 | Victor Grignard; Paul Sabatier | France | Grignard: discovery of Grignard reagent; Sabatier: hydrogenation of organic compounds |
| 1913 | (No Prize awarded) | - | - |
| 1914 | (No Prize awarded) | - | - |
| 1915 | Richard Willstätter | Germany | Research on plant pigments, especially chlorophyll |
| 1916 | (No Prize awarded) | - | - |
| 1917 | (No Prize awarded) | - | - |
| 1918 | Fritz Haber | Germany | Synthesis of ammonia from its elements |
| 1919 | (No Prize awarded) | - | - |
| 1920 | Walther Nernst | Germany | Work in thermochemistry |
| 1921 | Frederick Soddy | United Kingdom | Chemistry of radioactive substances and isotopes |
| 1922 | Francis W. Aston | United Kingdom | Discovery of isotopes using mass spectrograph |
| 1923 | Fritz Pregl | Austria | Method for micro-analysis of organic substances |
| 1924 | (No Prize awarded) | - | - |
| 1925 | Richard Zsigmondy | Germany | Study of colloid solutions and methods used |
| 1926 | The Svedberg | Sweden | Work on disperse systems |
| 1927 | Heinrich Wieland | Germany | Research on bile acids and related substances |
| 1928 | Adolf Windaus | Germany | Research on sterols and their link to vitamins |
| 1929 | Arthur Harden; Hans von Euler-Chelpin | United Kingdom; Sweden | Fermentation of sugar and enzymes |
| 1930 | Hans Fischer | Germany | Structure of haemin and chlorophyll, synthesis of haemin |
| 1931 | (No Prize awarded) | - | - |
| 1932 | Irving Langmuir | United States | Discoveries in surface chemistry |
| 1933 | (No Prize awarded) | - | - |
| 1934 | Harold C. Urey | United States | Discovery of heavy hydrogen |
| 1935 | Frédéric Joliot; Irène Joliot-Curie | France | Synthesis of new radioactive elements |
| 1936 | Petrus Debye | Netherlands | Knowledge of molecular structure |
| 1938 | Richard Kuhn | Germany | Work on carotenoids and vitamins |
| 1939 | Adolf Butenandt; Leopold Ruzicka | Germany | Butenandt: sex hormones; Ruzicka: higher terpenes |
| 1943 | George de Hevesy | Sweden | Use of isotopes as tracers in chemical processes |
| 1944 | Otto Hahn | Germany | Discovery of nuclear fission |
| 1945 | Artturi Virtanen | Finland | Agricultural chemistry and fodder preservation |
| 1946 | James B. Sumner; John H. Northrop; Wendell M. Stanley | United States | Preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in pure form |
| 1947 | Sir Robert Robinson | United Kingdom | Plant dyestuffs and alkaloids |
| 1948 | Arne Tiselius | Sweden | Electrophoresis and protein analysis |
| 1949 | William F. Giauque | United States | Thermodynamics at very low temperatures |
| 1950 | Otto Diels; Kurt Alder | Germany | Discovery of Diels-Alder reaction |
| 1951 | Edwin McMillan; Glenn T. Seaborg | United States | Discoveries in transuranium elements |
| 1952 | Archer J. P. Martin; Richard L. M. Synge | United Kingdom | Invention of partition chromatography |
| 1953 | Hermann Staudinger | Germany | Discoveries in macromolecular chemistry |
| 1954 | Linus Pauling | United States | Nature of the chemical bond |
| 1955 | Vincent du Vigneaud | United States | Biochemically important sulfur compounds |
| 1956 | Cyril N. Hinshelwood; Nikolay N. Semyonov | United Kingdom; Soviet Union | Mechanisms of chemical reactions |
| 1958 | Frederick Sanger | United Kingdom | Structure of proteins, especially insulin |
| 1959 | Jaroslav Heyrovský | Czechoslovakia | Discovery of polarography |
| 1960 | Willard F. Libby | United States | Carbon-14 method for age determination |
| 1961 | Melvin Calvin | United States | Carbon dioxide assimilation in plants (Calvin cycle) |
| 1962 | Max Perutz; John Kendrew | United Kingdom | Structure of globular proteins |
| 1963 | Karl Ziegler; Giulio Natta | Germany; Italy | Chemistry of high polymers |
| 1964 | Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin | United Kingdom | X-ray structure of important biochemical substances |
| 1965 | Robert B. Woodward | United States | Achievements in organic synthesis |
| 1966 | Robert S. Mulliken | United States | Molecular orbital theory of chemical bonds |
| 1967 | Manfred Eigen; Ronald G. W. Norrish; George Porter | Germany; United Kingdom | Studies of very fast chemical reactions |
| 1968 | Lars Onsager | United States | Reciprocal relations in irreversible processes |
| 1969 | Derek H. R. Barton; Odd Hassel | United Kingdom; Norway | Concept of conformation in chemistry |
| 1970 | Luis F. Leloir | Argentina | Discovery of sugar nucleotides and carbohydrate biosynthesis |
| 1971 | Gerhard Herzberg | Canada | Electronic structure and geometry of molecules |
| 1972 | Christian B. Anfinsen; Stanford Moore; William H. Stein | United States | Amino acid sequences and protein conformation |
| 1973 | Ernst Otto Fischer; Geoffrey Wilkinson | Germany; United Kingdom | Pioneering work on metallocenes |
| 1974 | Paul J. Flory | United States | Physical chemistry of macromolecules |
| 1975 | John Cornforth; Vladimir Prelog | United Kingdom; Switzerland | Cornforth: stereochemistry of enzyme reactions; Prelog: stereochemistry of organic molecules |
| 1976 | William N. Lipscomb Jr. | United States | Structure of boranes and chemical bonding |
| 1977 | Ilya Prigogine | Belgium | Non-equilibrium thermodynamics, dissipative structures |
| 1978 | Peter D. Mitchell | United Kingdom | Chemiosmotic theory of energy transfer in biology |
| 1979 | Herbert C. Brown; Georg Wittig | United States; Germany | Development of boron- and phosphorus-reagents in synthesis |
| 1980 | Paul Berg; Walter Gilbert; Frederick Sanger | United States; United Kingdom | DNA biochemistry & sequencing methods |
| 1981 | Kenichi Fukui; Roald Hoffmann | Japan; United States | Theories on chemical reaction courses |
| 1982 | Aaron Klug | United Kingdom | Electron microscopy and nucleic acid-protein structures |
| 1983 | Henry Taube | United States | Mechanisms of electron transfer reactions |
| 1984 | Bruce A. Merrifield | United States | Solid-phase peptide synthesis |
| 1985 | Herbert A. Hauptman; Jerome Karle | United States | Direct methods for crystal structure determination |
| 1986 | Dudley R. Herschbach; Yuan T. Lee; John C. Polanyi | United States; Taiwan; Canada | Dynamics of chemical elementary processes |
| 1987 | Donald J. Cram; Jean-Marie Lehn; Charles J. Pedersen | United States; France | Molecules with selective structure-specific interactions |
| 1988 | Johann Deisenhofer; Robert Huber; Hartmut Michel | Germany | 3D structure of a photosynthetic reaction center |
| 1989 | Sidney Altman; Thomas R. Cech | United States | Catalytic properties of RNA |
| 1990 | Elias J. Corey | United States | Theory and methodology of organic synthesis |
| 1991 | Richard R. Ernst | Switzerland | High-resolution NMR spectroscopy |
| 1992 | Rudolph A. Marcus | United States | Theory of electron transfer reactions |
| 1993 | Kary B. Mullis; Michael Smith | United States; United Kingdom | Mullis: PCR; Smith: site-directed DNA mutagenesis |
| 1994 | George A. Olah | United States | Chemistry of carbocations |
| 1995 | Paul J. Crutzen; Mario J. Molina; F. Sherwood Rowland | Netherlands; United States | Atmospheric chemistry, ozone formation/depletion |
| 1996 | Robert F. Curl Jr.; Sir Harold W. Kroto; Richard E. Smalley | United States; United Kingdom | Discovery of fullerenes |
| 1997 | Paul D. Boyer; John E. Walker; Jens C. Skou | United States; United Kingdom; Denmark | ATP synthesis mechanism; Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase |
| 1998 | Walter Kohn; John A. Pople | United States; United Kingdom | Computational quantum chemistry |
| 1999 | Ahmed H. Zewail | United States | Femtochemistry, transition states of chemical reactions |
| 2000 | Alan J. Heeger; Alan G. MacDiarmid; Hideki Shirakawa | United States; United States; Japan | Conductive polymers |
| 2001 | William S. Knowles; Ryōji Noyori; K. Barry Sharpless | United States; Japan | Asymmetric catalysis and chirally catalyzed reactions |
| 2002 | John B. Fenn; Koichi Tanaka; Kurt Wüthrich | United States; Japan; Switzerland | Identification and structural analysis of biomolecules |
| 2003 | Peter Agre; Roderick MacKinnon | United States | Channels in cell membranes |
| 2004 | Aaron Ciechanover; Avram Hershko; Irwin Rose | Israel; United States | Ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation |
| 2005 | Yves Chauvin; Robert H. Grubbs; Richard R. Schrock | France; United States | Metathesis method in organic synthesis |
| 2006 | Roger D. Kornberg | United States | Molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription |
| 2007 | Gerhard Ertl | Germany | Chemical processes on solid surfaces |
| 2008 | Osamu Shimomura; Martin Chalfie; Roger Y. Tsien | United States | Discovery and development of GFP |
| 2009 | Venkatraman Ramakrishnan; Thomas A. Steitz; Ada E. Yonath | United Kingdom; United States; Israel | Structure and function of the ribosome |
| 2010 | Richard F. Heck; Ei-ichi Negishi; Akira Suzuki | United States; Japan | Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions |
| 2011 | Dan Shechtman | Israel | Discovery of quasicrystals |
| 2012 | Robert Lefkowitz; Brian K. Kobilka | United States | G-protein-coupled receptors |
| 2013 | Martin Karplus; Michael Levitt; Arieh Warshel | United States; United Kingdom; Israel | Multiscale models for complex chemical systems |
| 2014 | Eric Betzig; Stefan W. Hell; William E. Moerner | United States; Germany | Super-resolved fluorescence microscopy |
| 2015 | Tomas Lindahl; Paul Modrich; Aziz Sancar | United Kingdom; United States; United States | Mechanistic studies of DNA repair |
| 2016 | Jean-Pierre Sauvage; Sir J. Fraser Stoddart; Bernard L. Feringa | France; United Kingdom; Netherlands | Design and synthesis of molecular machines |
| 2017 | Jacques Dubochet; Joachim Frank; Richard Henderson | Switzerland; United States; United Kingdom | Cryo-electron microscopy for biomolecules |
| 2018 | Frances H. Arnold; George P. Smith; Sir Gregory P. Winter | United States; United Kingdom | Directed evolution of enzymes and phage display |
| 2019 | John B. Goodenough; M. Stanley Whittingham; Akira Yoshino | United States; United Kingdom; Japan | Development of lithium-ion batteries |
| 2020 | Emmanuelle Charpentier; Jennifer A. Doudna | Germany; United States | CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing |
| 2021 | Benjamin List; David W.C. MacMillan | Germany; United Kingdom | Asymmetric organocatalysis |
| 2022 | Carolyn R. Bertozzi; Morten Meldal; K. Barry Sharpless | United States; Denmark; United States | Click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry |
| 2023 | Moungi G. Bawendi; Louis E. Brus; Alexey Ekimov | United States; United States; United States | Discovery and synthesis of quantum dots |
| 2024 | David Baker; Demis Hassabis; John M. Jumper | United States; United Kingdom | Computational protein design and AI protein prediction |
| 2025 | Susumu Kitagawa; Richard Robson; Omar M. Yaghi | Japan; United Kingdom; United States | Development of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) |