2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki. The prize was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 6 October 2010.

The citation

The citation reads: "for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis". They share the prize equally.

The laureates

Richard F. Heck was born in 1931 in Springfield, the United States, and is affiliated with the University of Delaware. Ei-ichi Negishi was born in 1935 in Changchun, China, and is affiliated with Purdue University, West Lafayette. Akira Suzuki was born in 1930 in Mukawa, Japan, and is affiliated with Hokkaido University, Sapporo.

Why it matters

Palladium-catalysed cross coupling is a way of joining carbon atoms together, used to make medicines, plastics and electronics.

The prize

The prize is worth 10 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.