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Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry announced

06 October 2010 13:14 (UTC +04:00)

Richard F. Heck, 79, of the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, Akira Suzuki, 80, of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, and Ei-Ichi Negishi, 75, of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, will share the 10 million-kronor ($1.5 million) award, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said at a press conference in Stockholm today. They won for finding â€œmore efficient ways of linking carbon atoms together to build the complex molecules that are improving our everyday lives,â€ according to the Nobel statement. The work, known as palladium-catalyzed cross coupling, helps develop medicines and â€œever more precise electronics,â€ according to the statement.
Last yearâ€™s prize in chemistry went to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, of the U.K.; Thomas A. Steitz, of the United States; and Ada E. Yonath, of Israel, for their work on how the DNA code is translated into life, findings that have been used to fight infectious disease.