this is an undated photo of gerhard ertl the 2007 nobel prize in chemistry winner

Through ages, the ‘World of Chemistry’ has increased our understanding of not just the chemical processes, but also their molecular basis.

It was the saga since the beginning of the last century; the Chemistry Nobel Laureates have contributed to many of the technological advancements we enjoy today.

Roger D. Kornberg, who won the ‘Noble Prize’ last year for resolving the DNA information-decoding machinery — “the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription” - has, this year, passed on the honor to Gerhard Ertl of Germany for “his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces.”

It was, perhaps, Gerhard Ertl’s best present on his 71st birthday.

Ertl told The Associated Press from his office in Berlin,

I am speechless. I was not counting on this.

Started in 1901, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded once a year by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and has been awarded to 150 individuals till date - Jacobus H. van ‘t Hoff being the first Chemistry Nobel Laureate, awarded for ‘his work on rates of reaction, chemical equilibrium, and osmotic pressure.’

Frederick Sanger was the only person to be awarded the prize twice - in 1958 and 1980.

The ‘Nobel’ Saga

Let us check out with the list of Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry from 1901 to the present...

� 2007 - Gerhard Ertl
� 2006 - Roger D. Kornberg
� 2005 - Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs, Richard R. Schrock
� 2004 - Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Irwin Rose
� 2003 - Peter Agre, Roderick MacKinnon
� 2002 - John B. Fenn, Koichi Tanaka, Kurt Wuthrich
� 2001 - William S. Knowles, Ryoji Noyori, K. Barry Sharpless
� 2000 - Alan Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid, Hideki Shirakawa
� 1999 - Ahmed Zewail
� 1998 - Walter Kohn, John Pople
� 1997 - Paul D. Boyer, John E. Walker, Jens C. Skou
� 1996 - Robert F. Curl Jr., Sir Harold Kroto, Richard E. Smalley
� 1995 - Paul J. Crutzen, Mario J. Molina, F. Sherwood Rowland
� 1994 - George A. Olah
� 1993 - Kary B. Mullis, Michael Smith
� 1992 - Rudolph A. Marcus
� 1991 - Richard R. Ernst
� 1990 - Elias James Corey
� 1989 - Sidney Altman, Thomas R. Cech
� 1988 - Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, Hartmut Michel
� 1987 - Donald J. Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn, Charles J. Pedersen
� 1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach, Yuan T. Lee, John C. Polanyi
� 1985 - Herbert A. Hauptman, Jerome Karle
� 1984 - Bruce Merrifield
� 1983 - Henry Taube
� 1982 - Aaron Klug
� 1981 - Kenichi Fukui, Roald Hoffmann
� 1980 - Paul Berg, Walter Gilbert, Frederick Sanger
� 1979 - Herbert C. Brown, Georg Wittig
� 1978 - Peter Mitchell
� 1977 - Ilya Prigogine
� 1976 - William Lipscomb
� 1975 - John Cornforth, Vladimir Prelog
� 1974 - Paul J. Flory
� 1973 - Ernst Otto Fischer, Geoffrey Wilkinson
� 1972 - Christian Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, William H. Stein
� 1971 - Gerhard Herzberg
� 1970 - Luis Leloir
� 1969 - Derek Barton, Odd Hassel
� 1968 - Lars Onsager
� 1967 - Manfred Eigen, Ronald G.W. Norrish, George Porter
� 1966 - Robert S. Mulliken
� 1965 - Robert B. Woodward
� 1964 - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
� 1963 - Karl Ziegler, Giulio Natta
� 1962 - Max F. Perutz, John C. Kendrew
� 1961 - Melvin Calvin
� 1960 - Willard F. Libby
� 1959 - Jaroslav Heyrovsky
� 1958 - Frederick Sanger
� 1957 - Lord Todd
� 1956 - Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, Nikolay Semenov
� 1955 - Vincent du Vigneaud
� 1954 - Linus Pauling
� 1953 - Hermann Staudinger
� 1952 - Archer J.P. Martin, Richard L.M. Synge
� 1951 - Edwin M. McMillan, Glenn T. Seaborg
� 1950 - Otto Diels, Kurt Alder
� 1949 - William F. Giauque
� 1948 - Arne Tiselius
� 1947 - Sir Robert Robinson
� 1946 - James B. Sumner, John H. Northrop, Wendell M. Stanley
� 1945 - Artturi Virtanen
� 1944 - Otto Hahn
� 1943 - George de Hevesy
� 1942 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
� 1941 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
� 1940 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
� 1939 - Adolf Butenandt, Leopold Ruzicka
� 1938 - Richard Kuhn
� 1937 - Norman Haworth, Paul Karrer
� 1936 - Peter Debye
� 1935 - Frederic Joliot, Irene Joliot-Curie
� 1934 - Harold C. Urey
� 1933 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
� 1932 - Irving Langmuir
� 1931 - Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
� 1930 - Hans Fischer
� 1929 - Arthur Harden, Hans von Euler-Chelpin
� 1928 - Adolf Windaus
� 1927 - Heinrich Wieland
� 1926 - The Svedberg
� 1925 - Richard Zsigmondy
� 1924 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
� 1923 - Fritz Pregl
� 1922 - Francis W. Aston
� 1921 - Frederick Soddy
� 1920 - Walther Nernst
� 1919 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
� 1918 - Fritz Haber
� 1917 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
� 1916 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
� 1915 - Richard Willstatter
� 1914 - Theodore W. Richards
� 1913 - Alfred Werner
� 1912 - Victor Grignard, Paul Sabatier
� 1911 - Marie Curie
� 1910 - Otto Wallach
� 1909 - Wilhelm Ostwald
� 1908 - Ernest Rutherford
� 1907 - Eduard Buchner
� 1906 - Henri Moissan
� 1905 - Adolf von Baeyer
� 1904 - Sir William Ramsay
� 1903 - Svante Arrhenius
� 1902 - Emil Fischer
� 1901 - Jacobus H. van ‘t Hoff