List of Jewish American chemists

This is a list of notable Jewish American chemists. For other Jewish Americans, see Lists of Jewish Americans.

• Bruce Alberts (born 1938), biochemist known for work on DNA replication
• Sidney Altman (1939–2022), chemist, Nobel Prize (1989)^[1]
• Christian B. Anfinsen (1916–1995), biochemist, Nobel Prize (1972) (convert to Judaism)^[2]
• Julius Axelrod (1912–2004), biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1970)
• David Baltimore (1938–2025), biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1975)
• Allen J. Bard (1933–2024), electrochemist, inventor of scanning electrochemical microscope, Wolf Prize (2008)^[3]
• Paul Berg (1926–2023), biochemist, Nobel Prize (1980)^[4]
• Konrad Bloch (1912–2000), biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1964)
• Ronald Breslow (1931–2017), chemist known for work on chemical mechanisms
• Melvin Calvin (1911–1997), biochemist known for discovering the Calvin cycle, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1961)
• Carl Djerassi (1923–2015), pharmaceutical chemist known for development of oral contraceptive pills
• Murray Eden (1920–2020), physical chemist
• Gertrude B. Elion (1918–1999), biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1988)
• Walter Gilbert (born 1932), biochemist, developed a method for DNA sequencing, Nobel Prize (1980)^[4]
• Herbert A. Hauptman (1917–2011), chemist, Nobel Prize (1985)^[5]
• Roald Hoffmann (born 1937), chemist and writer, Nobel Prize winner (1981)^[6]
• Martin Kamen (1913–2002), chemist who introduced ¹⁴C as a tracer for biochemical reactions^[7]
• Martin Karplus (1930–2024), theoretical chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013)
• Arthur Kornberg (1918–2007), biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1959)
• Daniel Koshland (1920–2007), biochemist known for induced fit
• Fritz Lipmann (1899–1986) biochemist whose research on coenzyme A led to a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1953)
• Rudolph Arthur Marcus (born 1923) chemist, theory of electron-transfer reactions, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1992)
• Jacob A. Marinsky (1918–2005), chemist who co-discovered promethium^[8]
• Matthew Meselson (born 1930) geneticist and molecular biologist, discovered semi-conservative DNA replication
• George Olah (1927–2017) chemist, research on carbocations, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1994)
• Alexander Pines (1945–2024), physical chemist, expert in solid-state NMR, Wolf Prize (1991)^[9]
• Martin Pope (1918–2022), physical chemist, Davy Medal (2006)^[10]
• Stanley B. Prusiner (born 1942) neurologist and biochemist, discovered prions, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1997)
• Efraim Racker (1913–1991), biochemist known for identifying and purifying Factor 1
• Michael Rossmann (1930–2019), structural biologist who discovered the Rossmann fold protein motif.
• William Stein (1911–1980), biochemist who worked on the ribonuclease sequence and catalytic activity, Nobel Prize (1972)^[11]
• Gilbert Stork (1921–2017), organic chemist, known for making contributions to the total synthesis of natural products
• Howard Martin Temin (1934–1994), geneticist and virologist who discovered reverse transcriptase, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1975)
• Ronald Vale (born 1959), biochemist and cell biologist, research on kinesin and dynein
• Frank Westheimer (1912–2007), chemist known for pioneering work in physical organic chemistry
• Richard Zare (born 1939), chemist known for the development of laser-induced fluorescence