Research into new, environmentally friendly ways of making molecules has won the 2021 Nobel prize in chemistry. Benjamin List and David MacMillan were recognised by the Nobel committee ‘for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis’.
Announcing the award, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ secretary general Göran Hansson described organic catalysts as ‘an ingenious tool for building molecules’.
List, based at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and Princeton University’s MacMillan both made breakthrough discoveries in the year 2000. Since then the field of organocatalysis has expanded rapidly offering a new ways to catalyse chemical reactions and synthesise complex molecules without relying on biological enzymes or compounds based on heavy metals.
The Nobel committee notes that List and MacMillan’s work has ‘had a great impact on pharmaceutical research and has made chemistry greener’.
The winners will each receive an equal share of the 10,000,000 Swedish kronor (£838,000) prize.
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