07 Oct 2021
ERC grantee Benjamin List wins 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Benjamin List, two-fold 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, worth in total € 4.5 million. 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.
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.