Wolf Prize for Chemistry: Winners by Year

Award years

• 2025

  • Helmut F. Schwarz

    For quantifying reactive species in the gas phase to solve fundamental problems in catalysis.

• 2023

  • Chuan He

    for discovering reversible RNA methylation and its role in the regulation of gene expression.

  • Hiroaki Suga

    For developing RNA-based catalysts that revolutionized the discovery of bioactive peptides.

  • Jeffery W. Kelly

    for developing a clinical strategy to ameliorate pathological protein aggregation.

• 2022

  • Benjamin F. Cravatt

    for developing activity-based protein profiling, a chemical proteomic strategy, to characterize enzyme function in native biological systems, and describe numerous enzymes which play critical roles in human biology and disease, including the endocannabinoid hydrolases whose lipid products regulate communication between cells.

  • Bonnie L. Bassler

    for her work elucidating the role of chemical communication between bacteria. She has made important discoveries revealing how quorum sensing is used by bacteria both for virulence and for communicating across species.

  • Carolyn R. Bertozzi

    Carolyn Bertozzi is awarded the Wolf Prize for pioneering biorthogonal chemistry and understanding glycocalyx, and its roles in both health and disease, thus allowing for bioimaging, chemoproteomics, and in-vivo drug delivery.

• 2021

  • Leslie Leiserowitz, Meir Lahav

    for collaboratively established the fundamental reciprocal influences of three-dimensional molecular structure upon structures of organic crystals.

• 2019

  • John F. Hartwig

    for independently developing efficient transition-metal catalysts which form carbon-heteroatom bonds, thus transforming the way drug molecules are manufactured, for the benefit of humankind.

  • Stephen L. Buchwald

    for developing efficient transition-metal catalysts which form carbon-heteroatom bonds, thus transforming the way drug molecules are manufactured, for the benefit of humankind.

• 2018

  • Makoto Fujita

    for his achievements in the field of supramolecular chemistry.

  • Omar M. Yaghi

    for his contribution in the field of reticular chemistry.

• 2017

  • Robert G. Bergman

    for the discovery of the activation of C-H bonds of hydrocarbons by soluble transition metal complexes.

• 2016

  • Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou

    For advancing the field of chemical synthesis to the extremes of molecular complexity, linking structure and function and expanding our dominion over the interface of chemistry, biology and medicine.

  • Stuart Schreiber

    For pioneering chemical insights into the logic of signal transduction and gene regulation that led to important, new therapeutics, and for advancing chemical biology and medicine through the discovery of small-molecule probes.

• 2014

  • Chi-Huey Wong

    for numerous original contributions to the programmable and practical synthesis of complex carbohydrates and glycoproteins.

• 2013

  • Robert S. Langer

    for innovations in polymer chemistry that have had profound impact on medicine, particularly in the areas of drug delivery and tissue engineering.

• 2012

  • A. Paul Alivisatos

    for developing the colloidal inorganic nanocrystal as a building block of nanoscience making fundamental contributions to controlling the synthesis of these particles, to measuring and understanding their physical properties, and to utilizing their unique properties for applications ranging from light generation and harvesting to biological imaging.

  • Charles M. Lieber

    for developing new methods to control the shape and heterostructure of nanowires, for characterizing their physical properties, and for demonstrating their potential applications.

• 2011

  • Ching W. Tang, Krzysztof Matyjaszewski

    for exploring the nature of organic solids and their energy profiles, structure and dynamics and for creating new ways to make organic materials, ranging from polymers, to organic-based devices that capture energy from the sun, and light our way in the dark. The researchers have been responsible for groundbreaking conceptual and experimental advances that have helped to create the research field of organic materials.

  • Stuart A. Rice

    For exploring the nature of organic solids and their energy profiles, structure and dynamics and for creating new ways to make organic materials, ranging from polymers, to organic-based devices that capture energy from the sun, and light our way in the dark. The researchers have been responsible for groundbreaking conceptual and experimental advances that have helped to create the research field of organic materials.

• 2008

  • Allen J. Bard, William E. Moerner

    for the ingenious creation of a new field of science, single molecule spectroscopy and electrochemistry, with impact at the nanoscopic regime, from the molecular and cellular domain to complex material systems.

• 2006/2007

  • Ada E. Yonath, George Feher

    for ingenious structural discoveries of the ribosomal machinery of peptide-bond formation and the light-driven primary processes in photosynthesis.

• 2005

  • Richard N. Zare

    for his ingenious applications of laser techniques, for identifying complex mechanisms in molecules, and their use in analytical chemistry.

• 2004

  • Harry B. Gray

    for pioneering work in bio-inorganic chemistry, unravelling novel principles of structure and long-range electron transfer in proteins.

• 2001

  • Henri B. Kagan, Ryōji Noyori

    for their pioneering, creative and crucial work in developing asymmetric catalysis for the synthesis of chiral molecules, greatly increasing humankind's ability to create new products of fundamental and practical importance.

  • K. Barry Sharpless

    for their pioneering, creative and crucial work in developing asymmetric catalysis for the synthesis of chiral molecules, greatly increasing humankind´s ability to create new products of fundamental and practical importance.

• 2000

  • Frank Albert Cotton

    for opening up an entirely new phase of transition metal chemistry based on pairs and clusters of metal atoms directly linked by single or multiple bonds.

• 1999

  • Raymond U. Lemieux

    for his fundamental and seminal contributions to the study and synthesis of oligosaccharides and to the elucidation of their role in molecular recognition in biological systems.

• 1998

  • Gabor A. Somorjai, Gerhard Ertl

    for their outstanding contributions to the field of the surface science in general, and for their elucidation of fundamental mechanisms of heterogeneous catalytic reactions at single crystal surfaces in particular.

• 1995/1996

  • Gilbert Stork, Samuel J. Danishefsky

    for designing and developing novel chemical reactions which have opened new avenues to the synthesis of the synthesis of complex molecules, particularly polysaccharides and many other biologically and medicinally important compounds.

• 1994/1995

  • Peter Schultz, Richard Lerner

    for converting antibodies into enzymes, thus permitting the catalysis of chemical reactions considered impossible to achieve by classical chemical procedures.

• 1993

  • Ahmed H. Zewail

    for using ultrafast lasers in femtosecond time resolved measurements of the evolution of chemical reactions – thus obtaining the first direct observation of bond breakage in a molecule.

• 1992

  • John A. Pople

    for his outstanding contributions to Theoretical Chemistry, particularly in developing effective and widely used modern quantum – chemical methods.

• 1991

  • Alexander Pines, Richard R. Ernst

    for their revolutionary contributions to NMR spectroscopy, especially Fourier-transform and two-dimensional NMR by Ernst, and multiple-quantum and high-spin NMR by Pines.

• 1989

  • Alan R. Battersby, Duilio Arigoni

    for their fundamental contributions to the elucidation of the mechanism of enzymic reactions and of the biosynthesis of natural products, in particular the pigments of life.

• 1988

  • Joshua Jortner, Raphael David Levine

    for their incisive theoretical studies elucidating energy acquisition and disposal in molecular systems and mechanisms for dynamical selectivity and specificity.

• 1987

  • David C. Phillips, David M. Blow

    for their contributions to protein X-ray crystallography and to the elucidation of structures of enzymes and their mechanisms of action.

• 1986

  • Albert Eschenmoser

    for outstanding research on the synthesis, stereochemistry, and reaction mechanisms for formation of natural products, especially Vitamin-B12.

  • Elias James Corey

    for outstanding research on the synthesis of many highly complex natural products and the demonstration of novel ways of thinking about such syntheses.

• 1984/1985

  • Rudolph A. Marcus

    for his contribution to chemical kinetics, especially the theories of unimolecular reactions and electron transfer reactions.

• 1983/1984

  • Harden M. McConnell

    for his studies of the electronic structure of molecules through paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and for the introduction and biological applications of spin label techniques.

  • Herbert S. Gutowsky

    for his pioneering work in the development and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in chemistry.

  • John S. Waugh

    for his fundamental theoretical and experimental contributions to high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in solids.

• 1982

  • George C. Pimentel

    for development of matrix isolation spectroscopy and for the discovery of photodissociation lasers and chemical lasers.

  • John C. Polanyi

    for his studies of chemical reactions in unprecedented detail through development of the infrared chemiluminescence technique, and for envisaging the principles underlying the chemical laser.

• 1981

  • Joseph Chatt

    for pioneering and fundamental contributions to synthetic transition metal chemistry, particularly transition metal hydrides and dinitrogen complexes.

• 1980

  • Henry Eyring

    for his development of absolute rate theory and its imaginative applications to chemical and physical processes.

• 1979

  • Herman Mark

    for his contributions to understanding the structure and behavior of natural and synthetic polymers.

• 1978

  • Carl Djerassi

    for his work in bioorganic chemistry, application of new spectroscopic techniques, and his support of international cooperation.