The Chemistry Nobel Prize 2013

The Chemistry Nobel Prize 2013

Chemistry is one of category of Nobel Prize given to chemists who have dedicated in chemistry science. For a chemist, Nobel Prize is one of most prestigious award. Nobel Prize for chemistry 2013 has been decided, chemistry prize goes to three theoretical chemists who have developed a multiscale computer model to predict complex chemical reaction.

The three chemists are Michael Levitt from Stanford University, Martin Karplus, Strasbourg University, Harvard University, and Cambridge University, and Arieh Warshe from University of Southern California. They have made outstanding computer model to predict how chemical reaction happens. For their contribution for chemistry science they awarded The Chemistry Nobel Prize Award 2013 .

Michael Levitt was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1947 but his nationality is American-British. Michael Levitt works as structural biology professor and computer science professor (by courtesy) in Stanford University . He has long bibliography of researches both single research or team research. He admitted that it would be very hard to understand what happen in nature without computer. Later he stated that the Nobel Prize for his team is an appreciation the importance of the computer and biology .

Michael Karplus is 83 year old Austrian-America who was born in Vienna. He is the Theodore Williams Richard Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Harvard University; he also affiliated with Universite de Strasbourg in France. He is very experienced chemist who has published four books and 411 articles. Arieh Warshe, one of Martin Kaplus teammate in multiscale computer models for complex chemical system research was once his student .

Arieh Warshel is 73 years old Israeli-American chemist who work as distinguished chemistry professor in University of Southern California. Arieh Warshel was once Michael Karplus student in Weizmann Institute Israel, the same place when all three chemists met . Many of Arieh Warshel’s researches are focused in development of computer simulations for biological molecule such as Simulations of Enzyme Catalysis and protein Action, Simulation of Chemical Reactions in Solution, Electrostatic Energies in Macromolecules, and Protein Folding .

The complex computer modeling project had been developed since 1960s when they met in Weizmann Institute in Israel. They wanted to develop a computer software that can simulate chemical reaction process. They also worked together in University of Cambridge in Britain for the same research. They thought that computer could be used to simulated complex chemical process in order gain more understanding about that, something that hard to do with conventional lab based experiment .