With just two weeks to go until the winners of the 2025 chemistry Nobel prize are unveiled, a list of researchers whose work has been classed as deserving of this award has been published by Web of Science provider, Clarivate.
This list of citation laureates was created by calculating which researchers’ work was cited 2000 times or more – less than 0.02% of papers fall into this category. This list of highly-cited researchers are then whittled down by experts at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate to create the citation laureates. As of 2002, 83 citation laureates have gone on to receive Nobel prizes, underscoring the predictive power of this method.
This year the citation laureates list includes 22 researchers whose work has made pioneering contributions that are shaping science and society. The laureates were chosen because they have advanced knowledge in fields of global relevance, from chemistry to economics. Of these, five citation laureates in chemistry this year, across three separate fields have been recognised.
Clifford Brangwynne, director of the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute at Princeton University, Anthony Hyman, director and research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, and Michael Rosen, a biochemist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and UT Southwestern Medical Center, were recognised for their discoveries on the role of phase-separated biomolecular condensates in biochemical organisation of the cell. While each made distinct yet complementary contributions, their work converged to establish a new paradigm in cell biology, revealing how cells compartmentalise biochemical reactions.
Brangwynne and Hyman collaborated during Brangwynne’s postdoctoral work in Hyman’s lab at the Max Planck Institute. In 2009, they published the seminal paper showing that that P granules, cellular structures found in Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny roundworm commonly used in research, behave like liquid droplets. This unexpected finding revealed the phenomenon of liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) in living cells, offering a new understanding of how cells organise their internal biochemistry without relying on membranes. Rosen discovered interactions among proteins can drive the formation of droplet-like condensates, particularly in the context of the cytoskeleton and signalling proteins. His work provided a biochemical and molecular framework for understanding LLPS. The trio’s interdisciplinary insights, from physics, cell biology and chemistry, established biomolecular condensates as a fundamental principle of cellular organisation. The three have been jointly recognised with awards such as the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences. Their insights have helped to reshape cell biology and opened new ways to understand diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer.
Next on the list, Jean-Marie Tarascon, from Collège de France, has been recognised for his contributions to energy storage and conversion technologies, particularly for fundamental advances and innovative applications that have shaped sustainable battery systems research. His work has advanced the field of lithium-ion batteries, with a strong focus on sustainability and performance. His research has aided the development of thin, flexible, plastic lithium-ion batteries to replace conventional liquid electrolytes with leak-proof polymer alternatives, a breakthrough that improved both safety and reduced environmental impact. Tarascon has received several awards, including the 2011 ENI Award for his work on affordable, high-performance batteries. He was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 2005 and awarded the Legion of Honour in 2009.
Finally, Tao Zhang, a chemist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been recognised for his contributions to the development of single-atom catalysis and applications. His pioneering work established single-atom catalysis as a transformative concept in heterogeneous catalysis, enabling atomic-level control of active sites and dramatically improving efficiency and selectivity in chemical reactions. Zhang’s research has opened new avenues in energy conversion, environmental protection and green chemical production, bringing single-atom catalysis closer to industrial application.
Three physics citation laureates also have strong links to chemistry this year. David DiVincenzo, director of the Institute of Theoretical Nanoelectronics at Forschungszentrum Jülich, and Daniel Loss, a theoretical physicist at the University of Basel, have been recognised for their idea for a quantum computing model that harnesses electron spins in quantum dots as qubits, something they proposed in 1997.
Ewine van Dishoeck, a molecular astrophysicist at Leiden University, is recognised for her pioneering work in astrochemistry, revealing the molecular complexity of interstellar clouds and their critical role in the formation of stars and planetary systems. Van Dishoeck has previously been tipped by a number of Nobel-prize watchers as a future chemistry laureate.
In the scientific community, predictions based on intuition and expertise are also emerging in a poll run by ChemistryViews. The poll predicts this year’s winner to be an American biochemist. The top contenders include, Chi-Huey Wong, a biochemist at the Scripps Research Institute, renowned for his pioneering work in carbohydrate synthesis. His development of programmable and enzymatic methods for producing complex carbohydrates and glycoproteins has transformed glycobiology and advanced drug discovery and vaccine development. Wong’s achievements have earned him major honours, including the Arthur C. Cope Award, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Robert Robinson Award.
Omar Yaghi, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, was another community favourite for his work in reticular chemistry, a field focused on constructing extended frameworks from molecular building blocks. He pioneered the creation of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), materials with large surface areas and applications range from carbon capture to water harvesting and clean energy. Yaghi’s work has rewarded with global recognition, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science.
The chemistry Nobel prize will be awarded on Wednesday 8 October at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Chemistry World will provide live updates on all developments that day, leading up to and following the prize announcement at 10.45am BST.
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