~This year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to scientists Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences praised their work in development of multi-scale models of complex chemical systems.

The $1.25 million prize is to be divided equally among the three winners.

Austrian-born Martin Karplus holds a professorship at the University of Strasbourg and Harvard University. South African Michael Levitt is based at Stanford University, and Israeli-born Arieh Warshel is affiliated with the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.