Two Americans and a French scientist won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for developing a chemical “dance” that makes molecules swap atoms, a process now used to produce medicines, plastics and other products with more efficiency and less environmental hazard.
“What a great day for chemistry,” said an advocate of environmentally friendly “green chemistry,” Paul Anastas of the American Chemical Society.
The $1.3 million prize will be shared by Robert Grubbs, 63, of the California Institute of Technology; Richard Schrock, 60, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Yves Chauvin, 74, honorary director of research at the Institut Francais du Petrole in Rueil-Malmaison, France.
They explained and improved a process called metathesis, said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in bestowing the prize.
This swapping of atoms between molecules creates new substances, and the winners have turned it into one of the most important reactions in organic chemistry, the academy said. Organic chemistry deals with carbon compounds.
“Metathesis reactions are an important tool in the creation of new drugs to fight many of the world’s major diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s and AIDS,” said William Carroll Jr., president of the American Chemical Society. “They also are used to develop herbicides, new polymers and fuels.”
Chauvin explained in 1971 how metathesis reactions work and what kinds of metal compounds can be used as catalysts to make the reactions happen. Schrock, in 1990, was the first to produce an efficient metal-compound catalyst for the process. Two years later, Grubb developed the first in a series of improved catalysts.
Their work has led to chemical-making methods that are more efficient and generate fewer hazardous wastes – a major advance for “green chemistry,” the academy said.
“Metathesis is an example of how important basic science has been applied for the benefit of man, society and the environment,” the academy said.
Anastas, director of the chemical society’s Green Chemistry Institute, said the approach requires less starting material and less energy as well as creating virtually no waste to dispose of and fewer byproducts.
“So all of those things that would seem like very environmental benefits also happen to make it tremendously more profitable,” he said.
The award for peace will be announced Friday in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. The economics prize will be announced Monday.
The Swedish Academy, which awards the literature prize, has not yet set a date for its announcement, which is always on a Thursday and could come next week.
Grubbs, the California scientist, said winning the prize was “one of these things you never expect to happen in your career,” he said. “You just keep doing science and see what happens.”
On Monday, Australians Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren won the Nobel Prize in medicine for showing that bacteria – not stress – caused ulcers of the stomach and intestine.
