The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 to Benjamin List, Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany and  David WC MacMillan, Princeton University, USA for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.

Benjamin List and David MacMillan are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 because in 2000 they, independent of each other, developed a third type of catalysis. It is called asymmetric organocatalysis and builds upon small organic molecules.

“This concept for catalysis is as simple as it is ingenious, and the fact is that many people have wondered why we didn’t think of it earlier,” says Johan Åqvist, who is chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Benjamin List, born in 1968 in Frankfurt, Germany. Did his Ph.D. in 1997 from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.

David WC MacMillan, born in 1968 in Bellshill, UK. Did his Ph.D. 1996 from University of California, Irvine, USA. Professor at Princeton University, USA.

10 million Swedish kronor will be shared equally between the laureates.