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Newsmakers - 3 Share Nobel for Chemistry

Posted on: Saturday, 8 October 2005, 15:00 CDT

By Malcom Ritter 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 produce 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, said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 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," William F. Carroll Jr., president of the American Chemical Society, said in a statement.

"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.

Grubbs said he was celebrating with a bottle of port. "It's tasting pretty good right now," he said.

Chauvin, said he felt "embarrassment, not joy," and added: "I had a quiet life, now I see that that is no longer the case."

Schrock said he became interested in chemistry when he was given a chemistry set as an 8-year-old, and at first liked to "blow things up."

Associated Press writer Ian Gregor in Los Angeles contributed to this report

Source: Commercial Appeal, The

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