Chauvin

Grubbs

Schrock

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    STOCKHOLM, Oct. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Yves Chauvin of France and Americans Robert Grubbs and Richard Schrock shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for discoveries that let industry produce drugs and advanced plastics in a more efficient and environmentally friendly way.

    The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the trio the prize for their work in metathesis method in organic synthesis.

    "This year's Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry have made metathesis into one of organic chemistry's most important reactions," the Nobel jury said in its citation.

    Their findings "represent a great step forward for 'green chemistry', reducing potentially hazardous waste through smarter production," the Academy said.

    Chauvin, 74, who works at the French Petroleum Institute, provided the "recipe" for this in 1971.

    Schrock, 60, a professor in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Grubbs, 63, a chemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology, developed effective and more stable catalysts to reproduce the reaction.

    Their research into metathesis laid the groundwork for the production of new drugs to treat illnesses like Alzheimer's, Down's Syndrome, HIV/AIDS and cancer as well as having uses in making food, chemicals and plastics, according to the Academy.

    On Monday, the Nobel Medicine Prize went to two Australian researchers Barry Marshall and Robin Warren for their pioneering 1982 discovery that ulcers are caused by bacteria.

    And on Tuesday the Nobel Physics Prize went to Americans Roy Glauber and John Hall as well as German Theodor Haensch for their groundbreaking work on understanding light.

    The award for peace will be announced on Friday in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. The economics prize, the only one not named in Nobel's will, will be announced on Oct. 10.

    The Swedish Academy, which awards the literature prize, has not yet set a date for its announcement, which is always on a Thursday and could come next week.

    The 2005 laureates will receive a gold medal and share a cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor (1.1 million euros, 1.3 million dollars) at the formal prize ceremony held on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the prize's creator Alfred Nobel. Enditem