On October 9, 2024, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to David Baker, a biochemistry professor at the University of Washington, along with John Jumper and Demis Hassabis from Google DeepMind in the UK. Their innovative contributions to protein design and structural research have earned them this esteemed recognition.
David Baker received half of the award “for his pioneering work in computational protein design,” while Jumper and Hassabis were honored with the other half for their significant achievements in protein structure prediction.
According to the official Nobel Prize website, between 1901 and 2023, the Chemistry Prize has been awarded 115 times, recognizing a total of 194 laureates. Notably, British scientist Frederick Sanger and American chemist K. Barry Sharpless stand out as the only two individuals who have won the award twice, bringing the total number of unique recipients to 192.
Among the current laureates, the oldest awardee is 97-year-old John B. Goodenough, who was honored in 2019 for his groundbreaking research on lithium-ion batteries that have made a fossil fuel-free society more achievable. In contrast, the youngest recipient is Frédéric Joliot, who clinched the award at just 35 years old in 1935 for his work in synthesizing new radioactive elements.
