The Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Swedish: Nobelpriset i kemi) is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel, who died in These prizes are awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine.[1] As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.[2] The first Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in to Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, of the Netherlands. Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a monetary award prize that has varied throughout the years.[3] In , van 't Hoff received , SEK, which is equal to 7,, SEK in December The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death.[4]
At least 25 laureates have received the Nobel Prize for contributions in the field of organic chemistry, more than any other field of chemistry.[5] Two Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry, Germans Richard Kuhn () and Adolf Butenandt (), were not allowed by their government to accept the prize. They would later receive a medal and diploma, but not the money. Frederick Sanger is one out of three laureates to be awarded the Nobel Prize twice in the same subject, in and John Bardeen, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in and , and Karl Barry Sharpless, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in and , are the others. Two others have won Nobel Prizes twice, one in chemistry and one in another subject: Maria Skłodowska-Curie (physics in , chemistry in ) and Linus Pauling (chemistry in , peace in ).[6] As of , the prize has been awarded to individuals, including eight women (Maria Skłodowska-Curie being the first to be awarded in ).[7]
There have been eight years for which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was not awarded (, , , , , –42). There were also nine years for which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was delayed for one year. The Prize was not awarded in , as the Nobel Committee for Chemistry decided that none of that year's nominations met the necessary criteria, but was awarded to Theodore William Richards in and counted as the prize.[8] This precedent was followed for the prize awarded to Fritz Haber in ,[9] the prize awarded to Walther Nernst in ,[10] the prize awarded to Frederick Soddy in ,[11] the prize awarded to Richard Zsigmondy in ,[12] the prize awarded to Heinrich Otto Wieland in ,[13] the prize awarded to Richard Kuhn in ,[14] the prize awarded to George de Hevesy in ,[15] and the prize awarded to Otto Hahn in [16]
In , Ioannidis et al. reported that half of the Nobel Prizes for science awarded between and were clustered in just a few disciplines within their broader fields. Atomic physics, particle physics, cell biology, and neuroscience dominated the two subjects outside chemistry, while molecular chemistry was the chief prize-winning discipline in its domain. Molecular chemists won % of all science Nobel Prizes during this period.[17]