The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1913 was awarded to Alfred Werner "in recognition of his work on the linkage of atoms in molecules by which he has thrown new light on earlier investigations and opened up new fields of research especially in inorganic chemistry".
 

The concept of valence on which all modern chemical theory is based had been found unable to deal with a large and important group of mainly inorganic compounds, the so-called complex or molecular compounds, because it was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation of their internal structure. Werner's theory has been supported in an extremely important and valuable manner by the stereochemical researches which he carried out as a sideline, mostly in connection with his work on the constitution of chemical compounds. By virtue of his theory of the asymmetrical carbon atom, van't Hoff became the real founder of the stereochemistry of organic compounds, and it is Werner's indisputable merit to have introduced this approach to inorganic chemistry as well.