Awards Record

Chemistry

Nobel Prize in Chemistry: winners and how it is awarded

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded since 1901 under the will of Alfred Nobel. Laureates are chosen by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences after an invited nomination round that closes on 31 January.2,1,5

Awarded byRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Established1901
FrequencyAnnual
Prize valueSEK 11.0 million per full Nobel Prize, shared equally or by the committee's division where there are several laureates (as of 2023 (amount set for 2023 on the official prize amounts page))

How the winner is chosen

Nominations are by invitation. The Nobel Prize organisation says thousands of members of academies, university professors, scientists, previous laureates and others are asked to propose candidates, and the deadline for submissions is midnight on 31 January. A Nobel Committee of five to ten members reviews the candidates and consults experts, and the prize-awarding institution then takes a final vote. For chemistry the selecting institution is the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which announces the prize in early October.

Winners

  1. 2026Henri B. Kagan, Kenso Soai9,11,12The official motivation, as quoted by Il Sole 24 Ore, is "for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis"
  2. 2025Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, Omar M. Yaghi6Development of metal organic frameworks
  3. 2024David Baker, Demis Hassabis, John M. Jumper7Baker for computational protein design, Hassabis and Jumper for protein structure prediction
  4. 2023Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus, Aleksey Yekimov8Discovery and synthesis of quantum dots
  5. 2022Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, K. Barry Sharpless13Development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry
  6. 2021Benjamin List, David MacMillan14Development of asymmetric organocatalysis
  7. 2020Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer A. Doudna15Development of a method for genome editing
  8. 2019John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, Akira Yoshino16Development of lithium ion batteries
  9. 2018Frances H. Arnold, George P. Smith, Gregory P. Winter17Arnold for the directed evolution of enzymes, Smith and Winter for phage display of peptides and antibodies
  10. 2017Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, Richard Henderson18Developing cryo electron microscopy for high resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution
  11. 2016Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart, Bernard L. Feringa19Design and synthesis of molecular machines

Notable facts

Nominee names and other nomination details are kept secret and the Nobel Prize organisation says they cannot be revealed until 50 years later.4

The official prize amounts page states that the Nobel Prize amount for 2023 was set at SEK 11.0 million per full prize.3

Richard Kuhn (Chemistry 1938) and Adolf Butenandt (Chemistry 1939) were forbidden by Adolf Hitler from accepting their prizes. They later received the diploma and medal but not the prize money.10,20,21

Since 1974 the statutes say a prize cannot be awarded posthumously unless death has occurred after the announcement.10

Sources

  1. Nobel Prize Outreach, Prize announcement dates (2026)
  2. Nobel Prize Outreach, Nomination and selection of Nobel Prize laureates
  3. Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Prize amounts (2023)
  4. Nobel Prize Outreach, Nomination archive
  5. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes
  6. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2025 (October 2025)
  7. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2024 (October 2024)
  8. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2023 (October 2023)
  9. Associated Press (via KSAT), A list of this year's Nobel Prize winners (12 October 2026)
  10. Nobel Prize Outreach, Nobel Prize facts (27 October 2026)
  11. CNN (via KRDO), Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for unraveling mystery of asymmetric chemistry (7 October 2026)
  12. Il Sole 24 Ore, 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai (7 October 2026)
  13. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2022 (2022)
  14. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2021 (2021)
  15. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2020 (2020)
  16. Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019, summary (2019)
  17. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2018 (2018)
  18. Nobel Prize Outreach, All Nobel Prizes 2017 (2017)
  19. Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016, summary (2016)
  20. Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1938, summary (1938)
  21. Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1939, summary (1939)