Professor Michael Levitt of Stanford University, Martin Karplus of Université de Strasbourg, France, and Harvard University, and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Chemistry “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems”.

According to MercuryNews, “Levitt’s work uses powerful computers to learn the precise molecular structure of a biological molecule — an innovation essential to the design of therapeutic drugs.”

“The work of the three men, which started in the 1970s, has transformed the field, because it is almost impossible for old-fashioned chemical techniques — such as models that use plastic balls and sticks — to understand and map lightening chemical reactions, as well as understand the tiny shifts in molecules responsible for life at its most fundamental level.”