Germany’s Benjamin List and David MacMillan of the United States on Wednesday won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for their development of a precise new tool for molecular construction which has helped make chemistry greener, the jury said.
The duo was awarded “for their development of a precise new tool for molecular construction: organocatalysis. This has had a great impact on pharmaceutical research, and has made chemistry greener,” the Nobel Committee said.
Prior to their work, scientists believed there were only two types of catalysts, metals and enzymes.
In 2000, the researchers, working independently of each other, developed a third type, called “asymmetric organocatalysis”, which relies on small organic molecules.
List and MacMillan, both 53, will share the 10-million-kronor ($1.1-million, one-million-euro) prize.
“I thought somebody was making a joke. I was sitting at breakfast with my wife,” List told reporters by telephone during a press conference after the prize was announced.
He added that usually when the prize is announced, his wife jokes that he should keep an eye on his phone for a call from Sweden.
“But today we didn’t even make the joke,” List said.
“It’s hard to describe what you feel in that moment but it was a very special moment that I will never forget,” List said.
MacMillan is a professor at Princeton University in the US, while List is a director at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
“Many research areas and industries are dependent on chemists’ ability to construct molecules that can form elastic and durable materials, store energy in batteries or inhibit the progression of disease,” the Nobel committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
“This work requires catalysts, which are substances that control and accelerate chemical reactions, without becoming part of the final product,” it added
