Chemistry Nobel Awarded for Development of Asymmetric Organocatalysis\
Benjamin List was born in 1968 in Frankfurt, Germany. He earned his PhD from the Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany in 1997. He is currently the director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
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| Benjamin List |
David W.C. Macmillan was born in 1968 in Belshill, UK. He received his PhD from the University of California, Irvine, USA in 1996. He is currently a professor at Princeton University, USA.
What has he won the award for?
For the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.
The award quote says:
"The creation of molecules is a difficult art. Benjamin List and David Macmillan have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of a precise new tool for molecular manufacturing: organocatalysis. This has had a great impact on pharmaceutical research, and made chemistry green.
"Many research fields and industries rely on chemists' ability to manufacture molecules that can create elastic and durable materials, store energy in batteries or stop the progression of diseases. This task requires a catalyst. , which are substances that control and accelerate chemical reactions without becoming part of the final product. For example, catalysts in cars turn toxins in exhaust fumes into harmless molecules. Thousands of catalysts form enzymes in our bodies are also present, which take out the molecules necessary for life.
"Catalysts are thus fundamental tools for chemists, but researchers have long believed that, in principle, only two types of catalysts were available: metals and enzymes. Benjamin List and David Macmillan were awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry because in 2000 they developed a third type of catalysis, independent of each other. This is called asymmetric organocatalysis and is built on small organic molecules."
