Photo: Raimond Spekking — Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Benjamin List
born 1968 · Germany · Born 1940 or later
Nobel Chemistry 2021
German chemist who co-founded asymmetric organocatalysis, a third pillar of catalysis alongside metals and enzymes.
Nobel-winning work
He showed that small organic molecules such as proline can catalyse asymmetric reactions, founding the field of organocatalysis — a metal-free, environmentally friendlier way to build single mirror-image molecules.
Fields
Related topics
Protecting groups, asymmetric synthesis
Protecting groups manage chemoselectivity by temporarily masking reactive functions, while asymmetric methods control the formation of stereogenic centres.
Asymmetric organocatalysis
How small, metal-free organic molecules catalyze selective reactions, especially through covalent iminium/enamine intermediates or noncovalent hydrogen bonding.