STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three U.S.-based scientists won this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry today for developing powerful computer models that any researcher can use to understand complex chemical interactions and create new drugs.

Research in the 1970s by Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel has led to programs that unveil chemical processes such as how exhaust fumes are purified or how photosynthesis takes place in green leaves, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. That kind of knowledge makes it possible to optimize catalysts for cars or design drugs and solar cells.

The strength of the winning work is that it can be used to study all kinds of chemistry, the academy said.

All three scientists became U.S. citizens. Karplus, an 83- year-old U.S. and Austrian citizen, splits his time between the University of Strasbourg, France, and Harvard University. The academy said Levitt, 66, is a British, U.S., and Israeli citizen and a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Warshel, 72, is a U.S. and Israeli citizen affiliated with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

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