Nobel in chemistry honours pair for new way of building molecules

Scientists Benjamin List and David WC MacMillan recognised for developing a new type of catalyst to accelerate chemical reactions.

The Nobel Prize for chemistry has been awarded to German scientist Benjamin List of the Max Planck Institute and Scotland-born scientist David WC MacMillan of Princeton University.

The two scientists’ work had advanced pharmaceutical research and “made chemistry greener”, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement on Wednesday as it announced the winners.

List and MacMillan, working independently of each other, had developed a new type of catalyst to accelerate chemical reactions called asymmetric organocatalysis. Such catalysts are essential in molecular construction, the academy said.