Who is Benjamin List? Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry alongside David W.C. Macmillan

German chemist Benjamin List and United Kingdom’s David W.C. Macmillan became the shared winners of The Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2021 for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis. 

Also Read – Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi win Nobel Prize in Physics

He was born in 1968 in Frankfurt, Germany and graduated from the Freie University Berlin in 1993. List went on to complete his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Frankfurt (Mulzer) in 1997.

After the completion of his postdoctoral studies (1997 – 1998) as a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Scripps Research Institute. He went on to become an assistant Professor over there in January 1999. 

Also Read – Who is Giorgio Parisi?

He works as the Director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.

List’s research interests include new catalysis concepts, bioorganic chemistry and natural product synthesis.

While building molecules is an extremely difficult task in itself, Benjamin and David were awarded the Nobel Prize for developing a precise new tool for molecular construction called ‘organocatalysis’. 

Also Read – Who is Klaus Hasselmann?

It was believed that there are only two types of catalysts available but the Nobel winners developed a third type of catalysis, independent of each other in 2000. 

Their work and efforts have managed to make a huge impact on pharmaceutical research and helped make chemistry greener.

The Nobel Prize winners are selected by members of Swedish learned societies, while the peace prize is selected by the Norwegian Parliament. Recipients of the award receive a cash prize worth 1.5 million dollars along with the medal. 

Also Read – Nobel Prize 2021: Bejamin List, David MacMillan win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Last year’s Nobel for chemistry was won by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier for developing a method for genome editing. The two succeeded in discovering one of gene technology’s sharpest tools. 

The 2021 Nobel Prize winners include Ardem Patapoutian and David Julius for Physiology or Medicine and Klaus Hasselmann, Syukuro Manabe and Giorgio Parisi for Physics.