http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Israeli-scientists-awarded-Nobel-Prize-in-Chemistry-328246 Israeli scientists awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry
By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF
10/09/2013 13:15
2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry to be awarded to Jewish American scientists Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, Arieh Warshel - two of whom have Israeli citizenship - for their work on multiscale models for complex systems.
Three Jewish American scientists, two of which have Israeli citizenship, won the 2013 Nobel Prize for chemistry on Wednesday for laying the foundations for development of computers to understand complex chemical processes from the purification of exhaust fumes to photosynthesis.
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The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement, when awarding the prize of 8 million crowns ($1.25 million), that Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel had pioneered the use of computer models that mirror chemical reactions.
The work helps in complex processes such as the development of drugs.
"Chemical reactions occur at lightning speed; electrons jump between atomic nuclei, hidden from the prying eyes of scientists," the academy added.
"The Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2013 have made it possible to map the mysterious ways of chemistry by using computers. Detailed knowledge of chemical processes makes it possible to optimize catalysts, drugs and solar cells."
Arieh Warshel was born 1940 in Kibbutz Sde-Nahumc in Israel. He received a PhD in 1969 from Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. He is a distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Levitt is a US, British and Israeli citizen. He was born in 1947 in Pretoria, South Africa. He received a PhD in 1971 from the University of Cambridge in the UK. He is also a Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor in Cancer Research at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California.
Martin Karplus, a US and Austrian citizen was born 1930 in Vienna, Austria. He received a PhD in 1953 from California Institute of Technology in California. He is a Professeur Conventionné at the Université de Strasbourg in France and Harvard University, Cambridge.
Chemistry was the third of this year's Nobel prizes. The prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the will of businessman and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.