The recipients of the 2024 Nobel Chemistry Prize have been revealed. This year’s award was shared between David Baker from Washington University for his computational protein design work and the Google Deepmind employees Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for their efforts in protein structure prediction.

Heiner Linke, the Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, stated, “One of this year’s awarded discoveries concerns the construction of remarkable proteins. The other involves the realization of a 50-year-old dream, which is to predict the amino acid sequences of protein structures. Both discoveries open up significant opportunities.”

An announcement by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences mentioned, “The 2024 Nobel Chemistry Prize was awarded to three scientists who work on proteins, known as the chemical tools of life, and have solved the code of almost all known proteins using artificial intelligence. These discoveries hold immense potential.” The Nobel Chemistry Prize was previously awarded to Moungi Gabriel Bawendi, Louis E. Brus, and Alexei I. Ekimov last year for their research on quantum dots used in electronic devices and medical imaging.

Established based on Alfred Nobel’s will to use his fortune for rewarding those who have provided the greatest benefit to humanity in the previous year, the Nobel Prizes have been granted since 1901 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institute, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals or organizations for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine fields. Renowned figures who have won the Nobel Prize include scientists like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Marie Curie, writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus, as well as leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.