Benjamin List, two-time grantee of the European Research Council (ERC), has been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.” He shares the award with David W.C. MacMillan. Professor List’s work in this field has been funded for a decade by two ERC Advanced Grants. It is the second 2021 Nobel Prize awarded to an ERC-funded scientist and the ninth Nobel Prize since the ERC’s launch in 2007.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognised the laureates for their ground-breaking research resulting in the development of organocatalysts, precise tools to construct new molecules. This has had a great impact on pharmaceutical research and has helped to make chemistry greener.
Catalysts are thus fundamental tools for chemists, but researchers long believed that there were, in principle, just two types of catalysts available: metals and enzymes. 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’s research work at Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Germany, has been funded by two ERC Advanced Grants from 2011 to 2021. Professor List’s ERC-funded work focused on creating novel organocatalysts. Many research areas and industries are dependent on chemists’ ability to construct molecules both selectively and efficiently. This work requires the mediation of catalysts, which are compounds that accelerate chemical reactions, without becoming part of the final product.
Professor List’s first ERC grant, led to the development of original disulfonimide lewis-acid catalysts, which proved to be excellent organocatalysts in a wealth of fundamental organic synthetic transformations. They opened further opportunities for efficient synthesis of bioactive molecules. With his second ERC grant, Benjamin List aimed to design and develop the syntheses of efficient enantioselective organocatalysts, crucial to synthesise specific, desired versions of molecules. The research was at the border of the different fields of organic chemistry, homogeneous catalysis and physical-chemistry. These are some of the most efficient catalysts that chemistry knows.
About the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organisation whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their infuence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.
About the European Research Council (ERC)
The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation.
Read the scientific background of this winning research here(pdf).
Read the official press release here (pdf).
Source: ERC, Nobelprize.org
Photo credits to: Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach.