Richard F. Heck, one of three scientists who share this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry, created a chemical tool that opened up new research possibilities for scientists in his field.

Now an emeritus professor at the University of Delaware, Heck was named Wednesday as one of three professors sharing the 2010 Nobel prize for his invention of a chemical reaction that bears his name.

The so-called palladium-catalyzed cross coupling may be little known outside Heck's field, but to chemists it threw open the door for a range of experiments previously stymied by the difficulty of inducing carbon atoms to react with one another.

The Heck reaction, and those developed by his co-winners Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki, collects stubborn carbon atoms on a palladium atom, where they are close enough to react.

Born 1931 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Heck obtained his Ph.D. in 1954 from the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his undergraduate degree from the same institution.

After graduating, he spent time at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and then worked at a Delaware chemical firm called Hercules Powder.

In 1971, he joined the faculty of the University of Delaware's Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, where he developed the reaction for which he would become most famous.

In 2006, his work earned him the Herbert C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods from the American Chemical Society, which lauded the "profound impact" of the Heck reaction.

"The importance of this reaction cannot be overstated," the society said

On Wednesday, ACS President Joseph Francisco said the Nobel committee's selection of Heck, Negishi and Suzuki was "wonderful."

"The winners are among the foremost scientists of our era," he said in a statement.

"Their research has led to creation of new molecules and compounds that have improved the lives of millions of people. It gave us revolutionary new medicines, plastics and other products that improve the lives of people everywhere."

Heck retired from the University of Delaware in 1989, moving to Florida while retaining the title of Willis F. Harrington Professor Emeritus.

The university established an award and lectureship in his name in 2004 "to recognize visionary leadership in the field of organometallic chemistry, and to honor the contributions of Richard F. Heck."