The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded each year by the Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences according to guidance laid down by Alfred Nobel in his will in 1895. The prize is awarded to those who have made the most significant discovery or improvement in the field.
Between 1948 and 1952 the winners were:
- 1948: Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius
- 1949: William Francis Glauque
- 1950: Otto Paul Hermann Diels and Kurt Alder
- 1951: Edwin Mattison McMillan and Glenn Theodore Seaborg
- 1952: Archer John Porter Martin and Richard Laurence Millington Synge
Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius
Swedish chemist, Tiselius, was honoured for his development of physical techniques to be used in biochemistry. It was especially his use of electrophoresis, which uses an electric current to separate large molecules, especially proteins, that he won the prize. He used this method to make some important discoveries concerning the complex nature of the serum proteins – proteins found in blood plasma.
William Francis Glauque
Canadian-born Glauque, who spent most of his working life at the University of California in Berkeley, was best known for his work on thermodynamics. His main activity focused on undertaking accurate tests to demonstrate that the third law of thermodynamics is a basic natural law. He was awarded for the Nobel Prize for this work, and especially for his work on the behaviour of substances at extremely low temperatures.
Otto Paul Hermann Diels and Kurt Alder
In 1950, two German chemists were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery and development of diene synthesis. This synthesis, also known as the Diels-Alder Reaction, involves a reaction between a conjugated diene and a substituted alkene to form a substituted cyclohexene system. This reaction requires very little energy to proceed and its product is very useful to many other organic reactions.
Edwin Mattison McMillan and Glenn Theodore Seaborg
These two American chemists worked in the field of nuclear chemistry and were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements. These elements have atomic numbers greater than 92 – that of uranium – are unstable and decay radioactively. McMillan created neptunium, the first transuranium element, in 1940, and Seaborg followed on, discovering 10 more elements, including element 106 which was named 'seaborgium' in his honour.
Archer John Porter Martin and Richard Laurence Millington Synge
Martin and Singe, working at the Wool Industries Research Association in Leed, UK, developed together a new method for separating mixtures of similar chemicals, called partition chromatography. This technique, initially used to separate amino acids, revolutionised the discipline of analytical chemistry, and led to the development of gas liquid chromatography.
Source:
The Official Website of the Nobel Prize, NobelPrize.org
Simon Davies - Simon Davies has lived a varied life so far After completing a BSc in Chemistry at the University of Bristol, UK, he worked as a ...
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