2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa. The prize was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 5 October 2016.

The citation

The citation reads: "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines". They share the prize equally.

The laureates

Jean-Pierre Sauvage was born in 1944 in Paris, France, and is affiliated with the University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg. Sir J. Fraser Stoddart was born in 1942 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, and is affiliated with Northwestern University, Evanston. Bernard L. Feringa was born in 1951 in Barger-Compascuum, the Netherlands, and is affiliated with the University of Groningen, Groningen.

Why it matters

The chemists designed molecules with moving parts, such as tiny motors and lifts, that could one day be used in new materials and medicine. Stoddart was born in Edinburgh.

The prize

The prize is worth 8 million Swedish kronor, divided between the laureates. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.