3 Chemists Win Nobel Prize By Making Atoms ‘Dance’

By MALCOLM RITTER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Two Americans and a French scientist won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for developing a chemical "dance" that makes molecules swap atoms, a process now used to create medicines, plastics and other products with more efficiency and less environmental hazard.

"What a great day for chemistry," declared an advocate of environmentally friendly "green chemistry," Paul Anastas of the American Chemical Society.

The $1.3 million prize will be shared by Robert H. Grubbs, 63, of the California Institute of Technology; Richard R. Schrock, 60, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yves Chauvin, 74, honorary director of research at the Institut Francais du Petrole in Rueil-Malmaison, France.

They explained and improved a process called metathesis, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in bestowing the prize. This swapping of atoms between molecules creates new substances, and the winners have turned it into one of the most important reactions in organic chemistry, the academy said. Organic chemistry deals with carbon compounds.

"Metathesis reactions are an important tool in the creation of new drugs to fight many of the world’s major diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s and AIDS," said William F. Carroll Jr., president of the American Chemical Society. "They also are used to develop herbicides, new polymers and fuels."

Chauvin explained in 1971 how metathesis reactions work and what kinds of metal compounds can be used as catalysts to make the reactions happen. Schrock, in 1990, was the first to produce an efficient metal-compound catalyst for the process. Two years later, Grubb developed the first in a series of improved catalysts.

Their work has led to chemical-making methods that are more efficient and generate fewer hazardous wastes – a major advance for "green chemistry," the academy said.

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