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Nobel Prize For Chemistry 2013: Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt And Arieh Warshel Honored With Prize

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(L-R) Sven Lidin, Staffan Normark and Gunnar Karlstrom sit in front of a screen displaying the portraits of scientists (L-R) Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel during a press conference to announce the laureates of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on October 9, 2013 at the Nobel Assembly at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. US-Austrian Martin Karplus, US-British Michael Levitt and US-Israeli Arieh Warshel won Nobel Chemistry Prize for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems. AFP PHOTO / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)

Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel won the 2013 Nobel Prize For Chemistry on Wednesday "for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems."

Because chemical reactions occur so quickly, they're often difficult for scientists to see and understand. In the 1970s, the Nobel laureates laid the foundation for programs that make it possible to map the mysterious ways of chemistry by using computers.

Karplus, an American and Austrian citizen, is affiliated with the Universite de Strasbourg in France and Harvard University. Levitt, an American, British and Israeli citizen, is a professor of cancer research at Stanford. And Warshel, an American and Israeli citizen, is a distinguished professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The prize, which is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, is given to those "who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement."

More from the Associated Press:

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel won this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for laying the foundation for the computer models used to understand and predict chemical processes.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their research in the 1970s has helped scientists develop programs that unveil chemical processes such as the purification of exhaust fumes or the photosynthesis in green leaves.

"The work of Karplus, Levitt and Warshel is ground-breaking in that they managed to make Newton's classical physics work side-by-side with the fundamentally different quantum physics," the academy said. "Previously, chemists had to choose to use either/or."

Karplus, a U.S. and Austrian citizen, is affiliated with the University of Strasbourg, France, and Harvard University. The academy said Levitt is a British, U.S., and Israeli citizen and a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Warshel is a U.S. and Israeli citizen affiliated with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Warshel told a news conference in Stockholm by telephone that he was "extremely happy" to be awakened in the middle of the night in Los Angeles to find out he had won the prize and looks forward to collecting the award in the Swedish capital in December.

"In short what we developed is a way which requires computers to look, to take the structure of the protein and then to eventually understand how exactly it does what it does," Warshel said.

Earlier this week, three Americans won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries about how key substances are moved around within cells and the physics award went to British and Belgian scientists whose theories help explain how matter formed after the Big Bang.

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Before You Go

Women Nobel Prize Laureates in the Sciences
Marie Curie, née Sklodowska — Physics 1903, Chemistry 1911(01 of16)
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Marie Curie, née Sklodowska (1867-1934) became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize when she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics along with her husband Pierre Curie and Antoine Henri Becquerel "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure." Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the first woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in the sciences and the first woman to win two Nobel Prizes — an achievement that no woman has yet to duplicate — when she was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements of radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element." (credit:Unknown photographer; Wikimedia Commons)
Iréne Joliot-Curie — Chemistry 1935(02 of16)
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Iréne Joliot-Curie (1897-1956) was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with her husband Frédéric Joliot, "in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements."Joliot-Curie was the daughter of two-time Nobel Prize laureate Marie Curie née Sklodowska and Nobel Prize laureate Pierre Curie. (credit:James Stokley, Smithsonian Institute, Flickr; Wikimedia Commons)
Gerty Cori, née Radnitz — Physiology or Medicine 1947(03 of16)
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Gerty Cori, née Radnitz was awarded one half of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen."The other half of the prize went to Bernando Alberto Houssay "for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar." (credit:National Library of Medicine, Images from the History of Medicine, B045353, US Department of Health and Human Services; Wikimedia Commons)
Maria Goeppert Mayer - Physics 1963(04 of16)
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Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) shared half of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics with J. Hans D. Jensen, "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure."Eugene Paul Wigner received the other half of the prize "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles." (credit:Nobel Foundation; Wikimedia Commons)
Dorothy Hodgkin — Chemistry 1964(05 of16)
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Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994) was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry"for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances." (credit:Getty Images)
Rosalyn Yalow — Physiology or Medicine 1977(06 of16)
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Rosalyn Yalow (1921-2011) was awarded one half of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones." Andrew Schally and Roger Guillemin split the other half of the prize "for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain." (credit:Getty Images)
Barbara McClintock — Physiology or Medicine 1977(07 of16)
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Barbara McClintock (b.1902) was awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements."McClintock is the only woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in the field of Physiology or Medicine. (credit:Getty)
Rita Levi-Montalcini — Physiology or Medicine 1986(08 of16)
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Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-2012) was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Stanley Cohen "for their discoveries of growth factors." (credit:Presidenza della Repubblica Italiana; Wikimedia Commons)
Gertrude Elion — Physiology or Medicine 1988(09 of16)
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Gertrude Elion (1918-1999) was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Sir James Black and George Hitchings "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment." (credit:Getty)
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard — Physiology or Medicine 1995(10 of16)
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Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (b.1942) was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Edward Lewis and Eric Wieschaus "for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development." (credit:Rama; Wikimedia Commons)
Linda Buck — Physiology or Medicine 2004(11 of16)
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Linda Buck (b. 1947) was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Richard Axel "for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system." (credit:Betsy Devine; Wikimedia Commons)
Françoise Barre-Sinoussi — Physiology or Medicine 2008(12 of16)
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Françoise Barre-Sinoussi was awarded half of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Luc Montagnier "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus." Harald zur Hausen won the other half of the prize "for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer." (credit:Academy of Medical Sciences; Flickr)
Elizabeth Blackburn — Physiology or Medicine 2009(13 of16)
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Elizabeth Blackburn (b.1948) was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase."The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was the first Noble Prize in the sciences awarded to more than one woman. The year 2009 was also the first time more than one woman was awarded a Nobel Prize in the sciences -- Blackburn shared the Physiology or Medicine prize with Carol Greider, Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and Ada Yonath won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (credit:Gerbil; Wikimedia Commons)
Carol Greider — Physiology or Medicine 2009(14 of16)
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Carol Greider (b.1961) was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase." The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was the first Noble Prize in the sciences awarded to more than one woman. The year 2009 was also the first time more than one woman was awarded a Nobel Prize in the sciences -- Greider shared the Physiology or Medicine prize with Elizabeth Blackburn, Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and Ada Yonath won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (credit:Gerbil; Wikimedia Commons)
Elinor Ostrom — Economic Sciences 2009(15 of16)
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Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) was awarded one half of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons."Oliver Williamson won the other half of the prize "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm." The year 2009 was also the first time more than one woman was awarded a Nobel Prize in the sciences. Other female prize winners that year were: Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider for Physiology or Medicine, and Ada Yonath for Chemistry. (credit:Courtesy of Indiana University; Wikimedia Commons)
Ada Yonath — Chemistry 2009(16 of16)
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Ada Yonath (b. 1939) was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome."The year 2009 was also the first time more than one woman was awarded a Nobel Prize in the sciences. Other female prize winners that year were: Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider for Physiology or Medicine, and Elinor Ostrom for Economic Sciences. (credit:Hareesh N Nampoothiri, NEWNMEDIA™; Wikimedia Commons)
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