Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for the design and synthesis of “the world’s smallest machines” — molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added.

These “molecular machines” can be used for the development of new materials, sensors and energy storage systems, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in announcing the prize.

“In terms of development, the molecular motor is at the same stage as the electric motor was in the 1830s, when scientists displayed various spinning cranks and wheels, unaware that they would lead to electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors,” it said.

The machines are not visible to the eye: They are only a few nanometers long, 1,000th the width of a strand of human hair. Dr. Sauvage took a big step toward their development in 1983, when he succeeded in linking two ring-shaped molecules to form a chain, called a catenane.

The second step was taken by Dr. Stoddart in 1991, when he threaded a molecular ring onto a thin molecular axle and demonstrated that the ring was able to move along the axle.

Dr. Feringa, in 1999, became the first person to develop a molecular motor; he got a molecular rotor blade to spin continually in the same direction.

The three men invigorated the field of topological chemistry, the academy said.

Who Are the Winners?

Dr. Sauvage, born in 1944 in Paris, received his Ph.D. in 1971 from the University of Strasbourg in France, where he is a professor emeritus. He is also director of research emeritus at the National Center for Scientific Research in France.

Dr. Stoddart, born in 1942 in Edinburgh, received his Ph.D. in 1966 from Edinburgh University, and he is a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Dr. Feringa, born in 1951 in Barger-Compascuum, the Netherlands, received his Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, where he is a professor of organic chemistry.