Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Benjamin List and David WC MacMillan

The Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to Benjamin List and David WC MacMillan this year “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”.

They have been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry "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.

The duo, both of whom are 53-year-old scientists, will be equally splitting the cash prize of $1.1 million, 10-million-kronor).

This duo has been awarded as they managed to develop a precise new tool for molecular constructions.

"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."

Before their research, scientists around the world believed that there were only two types of catalysts, and this duo has managed to bring a new path of discovery in the scientific world.

David WC MacMillan is a professor at the prestigious Princeton University in the US and Benjamin List is a director at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

In 2020, Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to France’s Emmanuelle Charpentier and American Jennifer Doudna for developing a gene-editing technique.

Nobel Prizes for Literature and Peace are expected to be announced on October 11.

A few days ago, American scientistsDavid Julius and Ardem Patapoutian were awardedNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of temperature and touch receptors."