Nobel Prize in Chemistry at a Glance (1901–2024): For UPSC, SSC & Other Competitive Exams
📘 Note to Readers
Before diving into chemistry, you might also want to check out my earlier post on physics:
🔗 Nobel Prize in Physics Winners & Breakthroughs (1901–2024)
It offers a similar timeline-based guide designed especially for learners and exam aspirants.
Now, let’s explore the trailblazers of chemistry!
Thank you for exploring this comprehensive Nobel Prize in Chemistry Winners List (1901–2024). This post is a tribute to the brilliant minds whose discoveries transformed science, technology, and medicine.
Whether you are preparing for UPSC, SSC, State PCS, or any other competitive exam—or are simply passionate about science—this guide aims to serve as a concise yet comprehensive knowledge resource. From the earliest atomic theories to today’s breakthroughs in nanoscience, chemical biology, and sustainable chemistry, this timeline charts the evolution of one of science’s most dynamic fields.
This compilation is designed to be academically useful, historically accurate, and easily accessible. If you find it informative, do consider sharing it with fellow learners. Your suggestions and feedback are always appreciated!
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Let this post be more than a record—let it ignite curiosity and admiration for the wonders of chemistry and those who dedicate their lives to discovering them.
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Era 1: 1901–1930 — Nobel Chemistry Discoveries & Foundations
🧪 Era 1A: Chemistry Nobel Laureates :1901–1915 — Birth of Modern Chemical Thought
The beginning of the 20th century witnessed chemistry emerge as a rigorous science, marked by groundbreaking discoveries in atomic theory, chemical bonding, and organic synthesis.
| Year | Laureate(s) | Country | Discovery / Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff | Netherlands | Laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions |
| 1902 | Hermann Emil Fischer | Germany | Sugar and purine synthesis (organic chemistry foundations) |
| 1903 | Svante Arrhenius | Sweden | Electrolytic dissociation theory and ionic conductivity |
| 1904 | Sir William Ramsay | UK | Discovery of noble gases (argon, neon, krypton, xenon) |
| 1905 | Adolf von Baeyer | Germany | Synthesis of indigo and dye chemistry |
| 1906 | Henri Moissan | France | Isolation of fluorine; electric arc furnace |
| 1907 | Eduard Buchner | Germany | Cell-free fermentation (enzymology begins) |
| 1908 | Ernest Rutherford | UK | Radioactive decay and atomic structure |
| 1909 | Wilhelm Ostwald | Germany | Catalysis, chemical equilibria, reaction velocities |
| 1910 | Otto Wallach | Germany | Alicyclic compounds and essential oils |
| 1911 | Marie Curie | France | Radium, polonium, and radioactivity research |
| 1912 | Victor Grignard & Paul Sabatier | France | Grignard reagents; catalytic hydrogenation |
| 1913 | Alfred Werner | Switzerland | Coordination compounds and modern inorganic chemistry |
| 1914 | Theodore William Richards | USA | Precise atomic weight measurements |
| 1915 | Richard Willstätter | Germany | Plant pigments, especially chlorophyll |
🧾 Note: No Chemistry Nobel was awarded in 1916 and 1917 due to World War I.

🧪 Era 1B: 1918–1930 — Expanding Frontiers in Chemical Sciences
Post–World War I, chemistry broadened to include thermodynamics, radioactivity, microanalysis, and biochemistry—laying foundations for future breakthroughs in both industry and medicine.
| Year | Laureate(s) | Country | Discovery / Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 | Fritz Haber | Germany | Ammonia synthesis (Haber process) |
| 1920 | Walther Nernst | Germany | Thermodynamics and the Nernst heat theorem |
| 1921 | Frederick Soddy | UK | Isotopes and radioactivity |
| 1922 | Francis Aston | UK | Mass spectrograph and isotopes |
| 1923 | Fritz Pregl | Austria | Microanalysis for organic compounds |
| 1925 | Richard Zsigmondy | Germany | Colloids and ultramicroscope studies |
| 1927 | Heinrich Wieland | Germany | Bile acids and complex natural substances |
| 1928 | Adolf Windaus | Germany | Sterols and vitamin D |
| 1929 | Arthur Harden & Hans von Euler-Chelpin | UK & Sweden | Fermentation and enzymatic activity |
| 1930 | Hans Fischer | Germany | Structures of hemin and chlorophyll |
These early years in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Winners List laid the scientific foundation upon which all future chemistry innovations were built.
🌍 Bridging Era 1 and Era 2: Nobel Prize in Chemistry
From the foundations of modern chemistry to applications in daily life
As we move forward from the foundational years of chemistry, the next part of this Nobel Prize in Chemistry Winners List (1901–2024) brings us into a period of molecular mastery and biochemical breakthroughs. From 1931 to 1960, Nobel-winning chemists deepened our understanding of life’s processes.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry Breakthroughs (1931–1960)
⚗️ Era 2A: 1931–1955 — War, Discovery & the Rise of Biochemistry
Despite the turmoil of World War II, this era witnessed remarkable chemical discoveries—from nuclear chemistry and polymers to the birth of biochemical analysis and structural chemistry.
| Year | Laureate(s) | Country | Discovery / Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | — | — | No Nobel Prize awarded |
| 1932 | Irving Langmuir | USA | Surface chemistry |
| 1934 | Harold Urey | USA | Discovery of deuterium |
| 1935 | Frédéric & Irène Joliot-Curie | France | Artificial radioactivity |
| 1936 | Peter Debye | Netherlands | Dipole moments and X-ray diffraction |
| 1937 | Norman Haworth & Paul Karrer | UK & Switzerland | Carbohydrates, Vitamin C, plant pigments |
| 1938 | Richard Kuhn | Germany | Carotenoids and vitamins |
| 1939 | Adolf Butenandt & Lavoslav Ružička | Germany & Switzerland | Sex hormones and polymethylenes/terpenes |
| 1940 | — | — | No Nobel Prize awarded |
| 1941 | — | — | No Nobel Prize awarded |
| 1943 | George de Hevesy | Hungary | Isotopic tracers in biochemistry |
| 1944 | Otto Hahn | Germany | Nuclear fission |
| 1945 | Artturi Virtanen | Finland | Agricultural and nutrition chemistry |
| 1946 | James Sumner, John Northrop & Wendell Stanley | USA | Enzyme purification and viruses |
| 1947 | Sir Robert Robinson | UK | Plant alkaloids and organic synthesis |
| 1948 | Arne Tiselius | Sweden | Electrophoresis and serum protein studies |
| 1949 | William Giauque | USA | Properties of matter near absolute zero |
| 1950 | Otto Diels & Kurt Alder | Germany | Diels–Alder reaction (organic synthesis) |
| 1951 | Edwin McMillan & Glenn Seaborg | USA | Transuranium elements |
| 1952 | Archer Martin & Richard Synge | UK | Partition chromatography |
| 1953 | Hermann Staudinger | Germany | Macromolecules and polymers |
| 1954 | Linus Pauling | USA | Nature of the chemical bond |
| 1955 | Vincent du Vigneaud | USA | Sulfur compounds, especially biotin |
🧾 Note: Nobel Prizes were not awarded in 1931, 1940, and 1941 due to global instability.
⚗️ Era 2B: 1956–1960 — Unlocking Molecular Structures
As peace returned, so did a wave of innovation. These years were marked by deeper understanding of complex molecules, reaction mechanisms, and solid-state chemistry.
| Year | Laureate(s) | Country | Discovery / Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Sir Cyril Hinshelwood & Nikolay Semenov | UK & USSR | Chemical kinetics and chain reactions |
| 1957 | Lord Alexander Todd | UK | Nucleotides and nucleic acids |
| 1958 | Frederick Sanger | UK | Structure of insulin (first protein sequenced) |
| 1959 | Jaroslav Heyrovský | Czechoslovakia | Polarography and electrochemical analysis |
| 1960 | Willard Libby | USA | Radiocarbon dating technique |
This chapter of the Chemistry Nobel laureates timeline reveals how chemistry became deeply connected to the life sciences and human health.
🔬 Bridging Era 2 and Era 3
Transitioning into molecular biology and structural chemistry
The third phase in our Chemistry Nobel Prize timeline (1961–1990) showcases how chemistry shaped the modern world, influencing medicine, synthetic materials, and energy. This segment of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Winners List reveals the rising complexity and application of chemical science.
🧪 Era 3A: 1961–1975 — Molecular Frontiers & Analytical Breakthroughs
This period deepened our understanding of molecular biology, bonding theories, and powerful analytical methods like NMR and X-ray crystallography.
| Year | Laureate(s) | Country | Discovery / Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Melvin Calvin | USA | Photosynthesis and the Calvin cycle |
| 1962 | Max Perutz & John Kendrew | UK | Structure of hemoglobin and myoglobin |
| 1963 | Karl Ziegler & Giulio Natta | Germany & Italy | Polymers and Ziegler–Natta catalysts |
| 1964 | Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin | UK | X-ray structures of penicillin and vitamin B₁₂ |
| 1965 | Robert Burns Woodward | USA | Complex organic synthesis |
| 1966 | Robert Mulliken | USA | Molecular orbital theory |
| 1967 | Manfred Eigen, Ronald Norrish & George Porter | Germany & UK | Ultrafast chemical reactions |
| 1968 | Lars Onsager | USA | Thermodynamics of irreversible processes |
| 1969 | Derek Barton & Odd Hassel | UK & Norway | Conformational analysis and molecular geometry |
| 1970 | Luis Federico Leloir | Argentina | Sugar nucleotides and carbohydrate metabolism |
| 1971 | Gerhard Herzberg | Canada | Electronic structures of molecules |
| 1972 | Christian Anfinsen, Stanford Moore & William Stein | USA | Protein structure and enzyme catalysis |
| 1973 | Ernst Otto Fischer & Geoffrey Wilkinson | Germany & UK | Organometallic sandwich compounds |
| 1974 | Paul Flory | USA | Polymers and macromolecular chemistry |
| 1975 | John Cornforth | UK | Stereochemistry in enzymatic reactions |
🧪 Era 3B: 1976–1990 — Biochemistry, Surfaces & Supramolecular Chemistry
The closing years of this era saw chemistry going beyond traditional boundaries—into bioenergetics, interfacial science, and molecules that “self-assemble.”
| Year | Laureate(s) | Country | Discovery / Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | William Lipscomb | USA | Boranes and chemical bonding |
| 1977 | Ilya Prigogine | Belgium | Thermodynamics of non-equilibrium systems |
| 1978 | Peter Mitchell | UK | Chemiosmotic theory and ATP synthesis |
| 1979 | Herbert Brown & Georg Wittig | USA & Germany | Organoboranes and Wittig reactions |
| 1980 | Paul Berg, Walter Gilbert & Frederick Sanger | USA & UK | Recombinant DNA and sequencing methods |
| 1981 | Kenichi Fukui & Roald Hoffmann | Japan & USA | Frontier molecular orbital theory |
| 1982 | Aaron Klug | UK | Electron microscopy and nucleic acid-protein structures |
| 1983 | Henry Taube | USA | Electron transfer in metal complexes |
| 1984 | Robert Bruce Merrifield | USA | Solid-phase peptide synthesis |
| 1985 | Herbert Hauptman & Jerome Karle | USA | X-ray crystallography improvements |
| 1986 | Dudley Herschbach, Yuan T. Lee & John Polanyi | USA & Canada | Dynamics of chemical reactions |
| 1987 | Donald Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn & Charles Pedersen | USA & France | Supramolecular chemistry and host–guest systems |
| 1988 | Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber & Hartmut Michel | Germany | Structure of photosynthetic reaction centers |
| 1989 | Sidney Altman & Thomas Cech | USA | Catalytic RNA (ribozymes) |
| 1990 | Elias Corey | USA | Organic synthesis methodology (retrosynthetic analysis) |
🌱 Bridging Era 3 and Era 4
The rise of sustainability, nanotech, and genetic chemistry
With the 1990s came a transformative shift in chemistry. No longer confined to isolated labs, chemists began collaborating globally to tackle real-world challenges like climate change, disease, and energy. This marked the start of a new era—where innovations such as molecular machines, CRISPR gene editing, green chemistry, and click reactions expanded the scope of chemistry into medicine, biology, and environmental science. As a result, the field became more collaborative, impactful, and central to solving urgent global problems. The most recent Nobel Prizes in Chemistry reflect this evolution, highlighting research driven by sustainability and interdisciplinary goals. Let’s now explore the key breakthroughs from 1991 to 2024.
Era 4: 1991–2024 — Nobel-Winning Chemists & Molecular Innovations
🧪 Era 4A: 1991–2005 — Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a Sustainable & Molecular Future
As the 20th century gave way to the 21st, chemistry embraced green technologies, biomolecular structures, and smarter synthesis — transforming healthcare, industry, and environmental science.
| Year | Laureate(s) | Country | Discovery / Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Richard Ernst | Switzerland | High-resolution NMR spectroscopy |
| 1992 | Rudolph Marcus | USA | Electron transfer theory in chemical reactions |
| 1993 | Kary Mullis & Michael Smith | USA & Canada | PCR technique and site-directed mutagenesis |
| 1994 | George Olah | USA | Carbocations and superacids |
| 1995 | Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina & Frank Rowland | Netherlands, Mexico & USA | Ozone depletion chemistry |
| 1996 | Robert Curl, Harold Kroto & Richard Smalley | USA & UK | Fullerenes (buckyballs) |
| 1997 | Paul Boyer, John Walker & Jens Skou | USA, UK & Denmark | ATP synthesis and ion pumps |
| 1998 | Walter Kohn & John Pople | USA & UK | Computational chemistry (DFT & quantum calculations) |
| 1999 | Ahmed Zewail | USA | Femtochemistry (observing chemical reactions in real time) |
| 2000 | Alan Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid & Hideki Shirakawa | USA, NZ & Japan | Conductive polymers |
| 2001 | William Knowles, Ryōji Noyori & K. Barry Sharpless | USA & Japan | Asymmetric synthesis and chirality in catalysts |
| 2002 | John Fenn, Koichi Tanaka & Kurt Wüthrich | USA, Japan & Switzerland | Mass spectrometry and NMR in biochemistry |
| 2003 | Peter Agre & Roderick MacKinnon | USA | Aquaporins and ion channels in cell membranes |
| 2004 | Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko & Irwin Rose | Israel & USA | Ubiquitin system for protein degradation |
| 2005 | Yves Chauvin, Robert Grubbs & Richard Schrock | France & USA | Metathesis reactions in organic chemistry |
The most recent entries in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Winners List (1901–2024) showcase a chemistry that is more interdisciplinary, global, and environmentally conscious than ever before.
🧪 Era 4B: 2006–2024 — Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the Age of Nanotech, Genetics & Sustainability
This dynamic phase redefined chemistry’s role in solving real-world challenges — from molecular machines and click chemistry to lithium batteries and genome editing.
| Year | Laureate(s) | Country | Discovery / Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Roger Kornberg | USA | Transcription in eukaryotes |
| 2007 | Gerhard Ertl | Germany | Surface chemistry and catalysis |
| 2008 | Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie & Roger Tsien | Japan & USA | Green fluorescent protein (GFP) |
| 2009 | Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz & Ada Yonath | USA, UK & Israel | Structure of the ribosome |
| 2010 | Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi & Akira Suzuki | USA & Japan | Palladium-catalyzed cross couplings |
| 2011 | Dan Shechtman | Israel | Discovery of quasicrystals |
| 2012 | Robert Lefkowitz & Brian Kobilka | USA | G protein–coupled receptors |
| 2013 | Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt & Arieh Warshel | USA, UK & Israel | Multiscale computer simulations |
| 2014 | Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell & William Moerner | USA & Germany | Super-resolved fluorescence microscopy |
| 2015 | Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich & Aziz Sancar | Sweden, USA & Turkey | DNA repair mechanisms |
| 2016 | Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart & Bernard Feringa | France, UK & Netherlands | Molecular machines |
| 2017 | Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank & Richard Henderson | Switzerland, Germany & UK | Cryo-electron microscopy |
| 2018 | Frances Arnold, George Smith & Gregory Winter | USA & UK | Directed evolution and phage display |
| 2019 | John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham & Akira Yoshino | USA, UK & Japan | Lithium-ion batteries |
| 2020 | Emmanuelle Charpentier & Jennifer Doudna | France & USA | CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing |
| 2021 | Benjamin List & David MacMillan | Germany & USA | Organocatalysis |
| 2022 | Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal & K. Barry Sharpless | USA & Denmark | Click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions |
| 2023 | Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus & Alexei Ekimov | USA & Russia | Quantum dots |
| 2024 | Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Katalin Karikó & Drew Weissman | USA & Hungary | Chemical biology advances in mRNA technology (vaccine-related) |
🎉 That’s the full journey — from van ’t Hoff to CRISPR and quantum dots!
🔗 References & Further Reading: Nobel Prize discoveries in chemistry.
For readers who wish to dive deeper into the discoveries, laureates, and ongoing impact of chemistry Nobel Prizes, here are some trusted resources:
-
🌐 Official Nobel Prize in Chemistry Page – Explore detailed profiles, lectures, and award citations.
-
🧪 Royal Society of Chemistry – A rich resource for chemical science education, research updates, and global chemistry news.
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📚 Wikipedia: List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry – A continuously updated list with background information and context on every laureate.
✎ Closing Note | समापन टट्पणी:
This full Nobel Prize in Chemistry Winners List (1901–2024) is dedicated to all students, learners, and jobseekers passionate about expanding their scientific knowledge. May this inspire your journey toward understanding the power of chemistry and the Nobel-winning chemists who shaped our modern world.
यह पोस्ट उन सभी विद्यार्थियों, ज्ञान-प्रेमियों और नौकरी के इच्छुकों को समर्पित है जो सामान्य ज्ञान बढ़ाने और प्रतियोगी परीक्षाओं की तैयारी में जुटे हुए हैं। यह श्रृंखला आपकी ज्ञान यात्रा में मार््गदर्शन और सहयोग देने के उद्देश्य से प्रस्तुत की गई है।**
📚 Nobel Prize discoveries in chemistry: More such informative and exam-friendly compilations are on the way—stay tuned to our website and social media channels for updates!
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🔄 Also explore its perfect companion:
Nobel Prize in Physics: Winners & Breakthroughs (1901–2024)
📘 The Chemistry post you’re reading is part of a twin series—designed to bring clarity to complex discoveries.
👉 Check out the Physics edition here
Made for each other. Meant for curious minds. 🧠💡
For more: Please visit: https://www.nobelprize.org/


You made this post an excellent source of history Sir, great knowledge share as always 👌❤️🥰
Appreciated