The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 was awarded jointly to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki "for Palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis". 
 

Organic chemistry has developed into an art form where scientists produce marvelous chemical creations in their test tubes. Mankind benefits from this in the form of medicines, ever-more precise electronics and advanced technological materials. 
 

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 awards one of the most sophisticated tools available to chemists today. This chemical tool has vastly improved the possibilities for chemists to create sophisticated chemicals, for example Carbon-based molecules as complex as those created by nature itself. Carbon-based (organic) chemistry is the basis of life and is responsible for numerous fascinating natural phenomena: colour in flowers, snake poison and bacteria killing substances such as penicillin. In order to create these complex chemicals, chemists need to be able to join carbon atoms together. Palladium-catalyzed cross coupling solved that problem and provided chemists with a more precise and efficient tool to work with. In the Heck reaction, Negishi reaction and Suzuki reaction, carbon atoms meet on a palladium atom, whereupon their proximity to one another kick-starts the chemical reaction. Palladium-catalyzed cross coupling is used in research worldwide, as well as in the commercial production of for example pharmaceuticals and molecules used in the electronics industry.
 

The Prize amount: SEK 10 million to be shared equally between the Nobel Laureates