Sharpless is following in the footsteps of double Nobel Prize laureates John Bardeen (physics 1956 and 1972), Marie Skłodowska Curie (physics 1903, chemistry 1911), Linus Pauling (chemistry 1954, peace 1962) and Frederick Sanger (chemistry 1958 and 1980).

Both Sanger and Sharpless received their second Nobel Prize more than two decades after their first award.

Barry Sharpless was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001 “for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions.”

Today it was announced that Sharpless shares his second Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Carolyn R. Bertozzi and Morten Meldal “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.”