David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper win the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Scientists David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the prize-giving organization announced on Wednesday, for work on the structure of proteins.

The prize, widely considered one of the most prestigious in the scientific world, is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is worth 11 million Swedish crowns (US$1.1 million).

Half of the prize went to Baker “for computational protein design,” while Hassabis and Jumper shared the other half “for protein structure prediction,” the academy said.

The chemistry prize is the third award presented each year and follows the medicine and physics awards announced earlier this week.

Established in the will of dynamite inventor and wealthy businessman Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Prizes are awarded to “those who have brought the greatest benefit to humanity in the past year.”

First awarded in 1901, 15 years after Nobel's death, the prize is awarded for achievements in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. The winners in each category share the prize sum, which has been adjusted over the years.

The Economics Prize is a later addition funded by the Swedish Central Bank.

The chemistry that was close to Alfred Nobel's heart and the discipline that best applies to his own work as an inventor may not always be the prize that grabs the most headlines, but previous winners include scientific greats such as the radioactivity pioneers Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie.

Last year's chemistry prize went to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Aleksey Ekimov for their discovery of tiny clusters of atoms known as quantum dots, which are now widely used to produce colors in flat panel displays, LED (light-emitting diode) lamps and devices that help surgeons see blood vessels in tumors.

In addition to the cash prize, the winners will be presented with a medal by the Swedish king on December 10th, followed by a lavish banquet in Stockholm City Hall.