The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists who have made outstanding contributions in chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes which were established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895.

Every year, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences sends out forms, which amount to a personal and exclusive invitation, to about three thousand selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations. The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the Prize. Nomination records are strictly sealed for fifty years. Currently, the nominations for the years 1901 to 1974 are publicly available. Despite the annual sending of invitations, the prize was not awarded in eight years (1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940–42) and was delayed for a year nine times (1914, 1918, 1920, 1921, 1925, 1927, 1938, 1943, 1944).

From 1901 to 1974, there were 760 scientists nominated for the prize, 87 of whom were awarded the prize either jointly or individually. 14 more scientists from these nominees were awarded the prize after 1974, and Frederick Sanger received a second award in 1980. Of only 15 women nominees, three were awarded a prize. The first woman to be nominated was Marie Skłodowska Curie. She was nominated in 1911 by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius and French mathematician Gaston Darboux, and won the prize on the same year. She is the only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice: Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911). Also, 32 and 15 scientists out of these nominees won the prizes in Physiology or Medicine and in Physics (including one woman more) respectively (including years after 1974). Only one company has been nominated: Geigy SA, for the year 1947.

Despite the long list of nominated noteworthy chemists, physicists and engineers, there have also been other scientists who were overlooked for the prize in chemistry, such as Per Teodor Cleve, Jannik Petersen Bjerrum, Ellen Swallow Richards, Alice Ball, Vladimir Palladin, Sergey Reformatsky, Prafulla Chandra Ray, Alexey Favorsky, Rosalind Franklin and Joseph Edward Mayer.

In addition, nominations of 21 scientists and four corporations more were declared invalid by the Nobel Committee.

Nominees by their first nomination

1901–1909

PictureNameBornDiedYears nominatedNotes 1901Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff30 August 1852 Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands1 March 1911 Berlin, Germany1901Awarded the 1901 Nobel Prize in ChemistryEmil Fischer9 October 1852 Euskirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany15 July 1919 Berlin, Germany1901, 1902, 1903, 1905, 1916, 1919Awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, later nominated for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine tooSvante Arrhenius19 February 1859 Uppsala, Sweden2 October 1927 Stockholm, Sweden1901, 1902, 1903Awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistryand nominated for Nobel Prize in Physics and in Physiology or Medicine tooHenri Moissan28 September 1852 Paris, France20 February 1907 Paris, France1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907Awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in ChemistryZdenko Hans Skraup3 March 1850 Prague, Czech Republic10 September 1910 Vienna, Austria1901Nominated by Eduard Lippmann (1838–1919) the only time.Marcellin Berthelot25 October 1827 Paris, France18 March 1907 Paris, France1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1907William Jackson Pope31 March 1870 London, England17 October 1939 Cambridge, England1901, 1907, 1915, 1916, 1927, 1932 1902William Ramsay2 October 1852 Glasgow, Scotland23 July 1916 High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England1902, 1903, 1904Awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistryand nominated for Nobel Prize in Physics too.Adolf von Baeyer31 October 1835 Berlin, Germany20 August 1917 Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany1902, 1903, 1904, 1905Awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in ChemistryTheodore William Richards31 January 1868 Germantown, Philadelphia, United States2 April 1928 Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States1902, 1905, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916Awarded the 1914 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1915Oliver Wolcott Gibbs21 February 1822 New York City, New York, United States9 December 1908 Portsmouth, Rhode Island, United States1902Nominated by Charles Edward Munroe (1849–1938) the only time?Rudolf Knietsch13 December 1854 Opole, Poland28 May 1906 Ludwigshafen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany1902Nominated by Peter Klason (1848–1937) the only time.Johannes Wislicenus24 June 1835 Querfurt, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany5 December 1902 Leipzig, Saxony, Germany1902Nominated by Zdenko Hans Skraup (1850–1910) the only time but died before the only chance to be awarded.Edward Williams Morley29 January 1838 Newark, New Jersey, United States24 February 1923 West Hartford, Connecticut, United States1902, 1908, 1909, 1910Armand Gautier23 September 1837 Narbonne, Aude France27 July 1920 Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France1902, 1914, 1915, 1916Nominated for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine too 1903Harmon Northrop Morse15 October 1848 Cambridge, Vermont, United States8 September 1920 Chebeague Island, Maine, United States1903, 1910Nominated by Harry Clary Jones (1865–1916) the only time. 1904Wilhelm Ostwald2 September 1853 Riga, Latvia4 April 1932 Grimma, Saxony, Germany1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910Awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 1905Eduard Buchner20 May 1860 Munich, Germany13 August 1917 Focșani, Vrancea, Romania1905, 1907Awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistryand nominated for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine tooDmitri Mendeleev8 February 1834 Tobolsk, Tyumen Oblast, Russia2 February 1907 Saint Petersburg, Russia1905, 1906, 1907Giacomo Ciamician27 August 1857 Trieste, Italy2 January 1922 Bologna, Italy1905, 1907, 1908, 1911, 1912, 1914, 1916, 1919, 1921Henry Louis Le Chatelier8 October 1850 Paris, France17 September 1936 Miribel-les-Échelles, Isère, France1905, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1934, 1935Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics too. 1906Walther Nernst25 June 1864 Wąbrzeźno, Kuyavian-Pomeranian, Poland18 November 1941 Niwica,Lubusz, Poland1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919,1920, 1921, 1922Awarded the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1921and nominated for Nobel Prize in Physics too.Victor Grignard6 May 1871 Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France13 December 1935 Lyon, France1906, 1909, 1910, 1912, 1928Shared the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Paul Sabatier 1907Ernest Rutherford30 August 1871 Brightwater, Tasman, New Zealand19 October 1937 Cambridge, England1907, 1908, 1923Awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistryand nominated for Nobel Prize in Physics too.Otto Wallach27 March 1847 Königsberg, Germany26 February 1931 Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany1907, 1908, 1910Awarded the 1910 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.Paul Sabatier5 November 1854 Carcassonne, Aude, France14 August 1914 Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France1907, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1928, 1929Shared the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Victor GrignardAlfred Werner12 December 1866 Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France15 November 1919 Zürich, Switzerland1907, 1908, 1911, 1912, 1913Awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.Stanislao Cannizzaro13 July 1826 Palermo, Italy10 May 1910 Rome, Italy1907Sophus Mads Jørgensen4 July 1837 Slagelse, Denmark1 April 1914 Copenhagen, Denmark1907Fredrik Adolf Kjellin24 April 1872 Södertälje, Sweden30 December 1910 Stockholm, Sweden1907Nominated by Otto Pettersson (1848–1941) the only time.William Crookes17 June 1832 London, England4 April 1919 London, England1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1918Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics too.Samuel Eyde29 October 1866 Arendal, Norway21 June 1940 Åsgårdstrand, Horten, Norway1907, 1909, 1913Kristian Birkeland13 December 1867 Oslo, Norway15 June 1917 Tokyo, Japan1907, 1909, 1912, 1913Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics too.Heinrich Caro13 February 1834 Poznań, Poland11 September 1910 Dresden, Saxony, Germany1907, 1910Adolph Frank20 January 1834 Klötze, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany30 May 1916 Berlin, Germany1907, 1909, 1910, 1916Theodor Curtius27 May 1857 Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany8 February 1928 Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924Albin Haller7 March 1849 Fellering, Haut-Rhin, France29 April 1925 Paris, France1907, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925 1908Richard Willstätter13 August 1872 Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany3 August 1942 Muralto, Ticino, Switzerland1908, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916Awarded the 1915 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.Frederick Soddy2 September 1877 Eastbourne, East Sussex, England22 September 1956 Brighton, East Sussex, England1908, 1918, 1919, 1922Awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1922and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics too.Albrecht Kossel16 September 1853 Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany5 July 1927 Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany1908Awarded the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Gustaf de Laval9 May 1845 Orsa, Sweden2 February 1913 Stockholm, Sweden1908Nominated by Otto Pettersson (1848–1941) the only time and for the Nobel Prize in Physics too.Georg Lunge15 September 1839 Wrocław, Lower Silesia, Poland3 January 1923 Zürich, Switzerland1908, 1909Arthur Rudolf Hantzsch7 March 1857 Dresden, Saxony, Germany14 March 1935 Dresden, Saxony, Germany1908, 1918, 1923, 1927 1909Edmund Oscar von Lippmann9 January 1857 Vienna, Austria24 September 1940 Halle (Saale), Saxony-Anhalt, Germany1909Nominated by Alexander Herzfeld (1854–1928) the only time.Ernst Schulze31 July 1840 Bovenden, Lower Saxony, Germany 15 June 1912 Zürich, Switzerland1909Nominated by Ernst Winterstein (1865–1949) the only time.Hans Heinrich Landolt5 December 1831 Zürich, Switzerland15 March 1910 Berlin, Germany1909, 1910 Otto Schönherr1 December 1861 Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany25 December 1926 Dresden, Saxony, Germany1909, 1910, 1912Karl Engler5 January 1842 Weisweil, Baden-Württemberg, Germany7 February 1925 Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany1909, 1910, 1911, 1916Jean-Baptiste Senderens27 January 1856 Barbachen, Hautes-Pyrénées, France26 September 1937 Barbachen, Hautes-Pyrénées, France1909, 1928, 1929Gabriel Bertrand17 May 1867 Paris, France10 June 1962 Paris, France1909, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1955, 1957Nominated for Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine too

1910–1919