The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2001 was divided, one half jointly to William S. Knowles and Ryoji Noyori "for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions" and the other half to K. Barry Sharpless "for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions".
 

Many molecules appear in two forms that mirror each other – just as our hands mirror each other. Such molecules are called chiral. William S. Knowles discovered that it was possible to use transition metals to make chiral catalysts for an important type of reaction called hydrogenation, thereby obtaining the desired mirror image form as the final product. His research quickly led to an industrial process for the production of the L-DOPA drug which is used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Ryoji Noyori has led the further development of this process to today's general chiral catalysts for hydrogenation. K. Barry Sharpless, on the other hand, is awarded half of the Prize for developing chiral catalysts for another important type of reaction – oxidation.
 

Today the results of their basic research are being used in a number of industrial syntheses of pharmaceutical products such as antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs and heart medicines.
 

Prize amount: SEK 10 million. Knowles and Noyori share one half and Sharpless receives the other half.