Benjamin List

Facts

Benjamin List

© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Bernhard Ludewig

Benjamin List
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021

Born: 11 January 1968, Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Germany

Affiliation at the time of the award: Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany

Prize motivation: “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”

Prize share: 1/2

Work

Catalysts, substances that accelerate chemical reactions, without becoming part of the final product, are important for chemists' ability to construct molecules. In 2000, Benjamin List and David MacMillan, independent of each other, developed a new type of catalysis that builds upon small organic molecules. An important capacity of many such catalysts is the ability to build only one of two mirror image variants of a molecule. Such catalysts are used for example in pharmaceutical research and have made chemistry more environmentally friendly.

To cite this section
MLA style: Benjamin List – Facts – 2021. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Thu. 30 Mar 2023. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2021/list/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Nobel Prizes and laureates

Nobel Prizes 2022

Fourteen laureates were awarded a Nobel Prize in 2022, for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Their work and discoveries range from paleogenomics and click chemistry to documenting war crimes.

See them all presented here.
Nobel Prizes 2022

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.