Trends in Chemistry Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize follows a pattern. It is told that a subdivision shouldn't get the price in consecutive years but of course the selection committee has the last laugh. Let's look at the distribution for the past 30+ years:


2017 - Biochemistry
2016 - Organic Chemistry
2015 - Biochemistry
2014 - Physical Chemistry
2013 - Physical Chemistry
2012 - Biochemistry
2011 - Materials Chemistry
2010 - Organic Chemistry
2009 - Biochemistry
2008 - Biochemistry
2007 - Physical Chemistry
2006 - Biochemistry
2005 - Organic Chemistry
2004 - Biochemistry
2003 - Biochemistry
2002 - Biochemistry
2001 - Organic Chemistry
2000 - Materials Chemistry
1999 - Physical Chemistry
1998 - Physical Chemistry
1997 - Biochemistry
1996 - Materials Chemistry
1995 - Organic Chemistry
1994 - Organic Chemistry
1993 - Biochemistry
1992 - Physical Chemistry
1991 - Physical Chemistry
1990 - Organic Chemistry
1989 - Biochemistry
1988 - Biochemistry
1987 - Organic Chemistry
1986 - Physical Chemistry
1985 - Inorganic Chemistry

Please feel free to discuss in the comments down below.

2013 Nobel Chemistry Prize - The Year of Inorganic

Tomorrow (Oct 9) the Nobel Chemistry Prize will be announced. And it is 35 minutes away for the Physics Nobel Prize. Visit Nobel Prize page for all that fun.

Meanwhile, I'll do yet another take on the winners of the Chemistry Nobel Prize. I'm sure it is already decided and perhaps a very able hacker can extract the information but nonetheless, we can still take a guess.

I'm still stuck on the Bio-inorganic theme as I did last year. There are very good lists by Chembark and Curius Wavefunction but I'd like to take the roulette game. Hit or miss.

My anticipation is a trio out of Harry Gray, Stephen Lippard, Sunney Chan, Richard Holm for their work on metalloenzymes and the electron transport phenomena as well the spectroscopic analysis of them.

If you look into the cycle, it is probably Inorganic this year. I cannot think of any inorganic breakthrough other than porous materials but it is too early for them either.

Let's see what happens.

2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry - it's hopefully the year for metalloproteins

It's that time of the year again. Who will get the highest honor of the scientific research?

Chembark already has some math going for the predictions. His most bet is for "Nuclear Hormone Signaling, by Chambon/Evans/Jensen".  Thompson reuters says Louis Brus for QDots work based on citation counts.

2011 Nobel Chemistry Prize goes to...

Update: Quasicrystals received the prize. Chemistry community is still trying to understand the underlying chemistry.

But we can guess.
As we did before - and failed.
Once again, let's not miss the fun.
According to the nobel-follows-a-trend idea, this year should go to Physical Chemistry or Materials Chemistry. The former is more likely, since materials chemistry is more applied and sounds more like an engineering discipline than real chemistry. I certainly do not agree.
So, here's a wild guess:

• Gabor Somorjai, Enrique Iglesia, Jens Norskov for their contributions to heterogeneous catalysis and development of in situ techniques.

Both 2010 Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry went to Carbon



Granular Carbon

After 14 years, this year was also a carbon year. The Nobel Chemistry and Physics prizes went to carbon related research: Palladium catalyzed carbon - carbon bond formation (Heck, Suzuki and Negishi couplings) and graphene, respectively. My 2009 guess included Andre Geim as a potential Chemistry laurate but he seems happier with the Physics prize.

Somehow I'm pleased with this year's results, unlike last year and the previous one. Don't know why.

Catalysis and carbon will continue to receive more prizes as hydrocarbon research is gaining momentum these days.

Mark my words..

Chemistry Nobel prize 2009

Another year and another guess..
Gaussling's LoC already has a trio in mind: Harry Gray, George Whitesides and Robert Bergman.

I don't think this is the year of organix though. See my trend post from last year.
It's definitely materials chemistry this time.

So, here're my 2009 predictions:
1. Self assembly: George Whitesides, Jacob Israelachvili, Gero Decher
2. Graphene and nanotubes: Andre Geim, Sumio Iijima
3. Q-dots: Louis Brus, Moungi Bawendi, Paul Alivisatos
4. Nanowires: Charlie Lieber, Peidong Yang, Zhong Lin Wang
5. Mesoporous: Jeffrey Beck, Galen Stucky, Ryong Ryoo

UPDATE: Ribosomes got it: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 was awarded jointly to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome".

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008 might go to Zhong L Wang, George Whitesides, Akihisa Inoue, Galen Stucky or Louis Brus

We all know that Nobel Prize follows a pattern. It is rare that a subdivision gets the price in consecutive years (except for Biochemistry since biochemists in the selection committee are -evidently- louder than the others). For example, chemistry nobel prize was given to Organic chemistry in 2005, then Biochemistry in 2006 and Physical chemistry in 2007. If you go to earlier years you see lots of Biochemisty: Biochemistry in 2002, Biochemistry in 2003, Biochemistry in 2004. Another Organic Chemistry award was in 2001 when the old Organic chemists needed to be recognized. The last time Nobel prize in Chemistry went to Materials Chemistry was in 2000. I'm not even going into nationality patterns (i.e. 2007 was the year for Germans - Physics and Chemistry both!)

Here's a quick list:
2012 - Biochemistry
2011 - Materials Chemistry
2010 - Organic Chemistry
2009 - Biochemistry
2008 - Biochemistry
2007 - Physical Chemistry
2006 - Biochemistry
2005 - Organic Chemistry
2004 - Biochemistry
2003 - Biochemistry
2002 - Biochemistry
2001 - Organic Chemistry
2000 - Materials Chemistry
1999 - Physical Chemistry
1998 - Physical Chemistry
1997 - Biochemistry
1996 - Materials Chemistry

Nanoscale materials did not get a nobel prize since the bucky balls got it in 1996. I feel like it is time for some nano something gets the prize. It will be hard since there's not a trio or less that invented this field but I still think it's doable.

Take mesoporous materials for example. Jeffrey S. Beck of ExxonMobil for his MCMs, Galen Stucky of UCSB for his SBA-15 (also happens to be my postdoc advisor ;) and Thomas J. Pinnavaia of Michigan State comes forward. MCM-41 and SBA-15 are the landmarks of this mesoporous country. A nobel prize can very well be divided into these three guys.

But I think some others will get it if nano is awarded (though mesoporous is perfectly nanoscale). I've done a Web of Science search on who published most in nano (in the US) and I selected the following:

356 papers - Professor Zhong L. Wang of Georgia Tech
225 papers - Professor Paul Alivisatos of UC Berkeley
221 papers - Professor Chad Mirkin of Northwestern
195 papers - Professor Richard Smalley of Rice (1996 Nobel prize winner)
193 papers - Professor Charlie Lieber of Harvard
159 papers - Professor Mostafa Al-Sayed of Georgia Tech
157 papers - Professor Peidong Yang of UC Berkeley
145 papers - Professor Moungi Bawendi of MIT
136 papers - Professor Hongjie Dai of Stanford
134 papers - Professor Thomas E Mallouk of PennState
105 papers - Professor Louis E Brus of Columbia

Most in this list have advisor-student relationship and Louis Brus for example comes very early in the ladder.

There are other big shots in materials and chemistry in general, such as George Whitesides and Akihisa Inoue.

So, my guess is that 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded to one of these three sets:
1) Zhong L. Wang, Charlie M. Lieber and Louis E. Brus
2) George M. Whitesides, Galen D. Stucky and Akihisa Inoue
3) Louis E. Brus, George M. Whitesides and Akihisa Inoue

Any other bets? Please do tell.