The Nobel Prize announcements are just a few days away. And while the prize system might have its flaws, there is always a lot of excitement in speculating who will win the grand prize in chemistry.
Hit the play button above to watch a webinar recorded on Oct. 1, 2026, in which experts predict who might win this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry and discuss the idea of artificial intelligence systems doing Nobel-worthy research.
Credit: C&EN/ACS Webinars
As part of the preparations for the Nobel Prize announcements, C&EN executive editor Laura Howes hosted this year’s Nobel webinar by C&EN and American Chemical Society Webinars on Thursday, Oct. 1. ACS publishes C&EN but is not involved in editorial decisions.
Joining Howes were prize-predicting panelists Ross King of the University of Cambridge, Amy Prieto of Colorado State University, and Chaochao Dun of the University at Buffalo.
King’s talk centered on the Nobel Turing Challenge, which he cofounded in 2016 along with scientist Hiroaki Kitano of Sony Group Corporation. The goal of the challenge is to build systems powered by artificial intelligence and capable of making Nobel-quality scientific discoveries autonomously. King addressed how AI could help solve some of humanity’s grand challenges and gave an update on AI’s progress since the first Nobel Turing workshop.
The audience was then given a vote on the role that AI will play in science endeavors in the future; see poll results in the webinar.
After that weighty question, it was off to prize predictions. Prieto had two picks: California Institute of Technology duo Harry B. Gray and Jay Winkler for their work on long-range electron transfer in proteins; and a split between David L. Allara, Ralph G. Nuzzo, and Jacob Sagiv for their groundbreaking work on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs).
Web of Science operator Clarivate added all five researchers to its 2026 list of predicted laureates based on citations and research influence.
Next-generation DNA sequencing is another leading contender for the chemistry Nobel. King and Dun both picked sequencing pioneers Sir Shankar Balasubramanian and Sir David Klenerman. Interestingly, King chose Hagan Bayley as the third researcher to share the award, but Dun thinks it will be Pascal Mayer. As his second choice, Dun also placed bets on perovskite solar cell inventors Tsutomu Miyasaka, Nam-Gyu Park, and Henry Snaith.
Meanwhile, Howes’s pick—biochemist Chi-Huey Wong—tops the list of a C&EN readers’ poll by a large margin for his work on programmable synthesis of carbohydrates and glycoproteins. Other picks from C&EN readers include Gray; Patrick Holland, who studies iron- and cobalt-containing compounds for inexpensive catalysts; and inventor of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) Krzysztof Matyjaszewski.
Webinar attendees, however, voted that they think some constellation of DNA sequencing scientists will win this year.
If you follow Nobel madness, most all these names pop up as contenders every year. And it’s anyone’s guess who will win.
David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate, says he is leaning toward solar cells, DNA sequencing, ATRP, single-atom catalysis (for Tao Zhang), or SAMs. “If one considers the subfields and themes highlighted by recent Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, an award this year for invention or technical achievement seems likely,” he writes in an email to C&EN. “Enough time has passed for the above contributions to be recognized for their important current or potential societal impact.”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded on Wednesday, Oct. 7. C&EN’s Nobel Prize coverage begins Oct. 5 with the physiology or medicine prize announcement, followed by the prize in physics on Oct. 6. Build up your anticipation by watching the webinar, and check back early next week for our science Nobel coverage.
Prachi Patel is a senior editor and physical sciences reporter at C&EN based in Pittsburgh.
