Stockholm: Two US and a Japanese scientist shared the 2008 Nobel Prize for chemistry, the prize committee announced on Wednesday.

Japan-born Osamu Shimomura and US researchers Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien will equally share the $1.4 million prestigious award in recognition "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein" that has become a key tool in contemporary bioscience, said a press statement from the Nobel Committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Nobel Prizes are awarded annually in recognition of the achievements in science, peace, literature and economics. The prizes bearing the name of Alfred Nobel were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the 1895 will of the Swedish scientist. IANS