Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Benjamin List and David MacMillan

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded on Wednesday to Benjamin List and David MacMillan “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”, a new tool for building molecules that has made chemistry “greener” and improved pharmaceutical research.

The names of the winners, chosen from dozens of names kept secret, were announced at 11:50 a.m. (local time, 9:45 a.m. GMT) in the Swedish capital.

The German list and the Scottish MacMillan “have developed a new and ingenious tool for building molecules: organocatalysis. Its uses include research for new pharmaceuticals and also contributed to make chemistry greener», Explained the Academy of Sciences.

“Researchers have long believed that there are only two types of catalysts: metals and enzymes. Independently, Nobel Prize winners Benjamin List and David MacMillan developed a third type, asymmetric organocatalysis, which is based on small organic molecules, ”they added.

Scientific authorities have also pointed out that organocatalysis has developed at an astonishing speed. “Through these reactions, researchers can more efficiently construct new pharmaceuticals with molecules capable of capturing light in solar cells,” they added.

“This concept of catalysis is as simple as it is ingenious, and the truth is that many people have wondered why this had not occurred to us before,” said Johan Åqvist, who chairs the Nobel Committee in Chemistry.

“Benjamin List and David MacMillan continue to be leaders in this field and have shown that organic catalysts can be used to drive a multitude of chemical reactions. Through these reactions, researchers can more efficiently build new pharmaceuticals to molecules capable of capturing light in solar cells. In this way, organocatalysts bring the greatest benefit to mankind, ”the press release said.

More than 70 candidates

Hungarian biochemist Katalin Kariko and American immunologist Drew Weismann, whose work gave birth to the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, had a second option on Wednesday, according to Swedish and international experts. With more than a billion people around the world vaccinated with products using mRNA technology, there is no doubt “their contribution to the benefit of mankind” as demanded by the Nobel Testament.

Corn many believe that it is early for the usually cautious Nobel Assembly, and that it could wait the next few years to award them the prize.

According to the specialist agency Clarivate, which maintains a list of scientific candidates for the award, over 70 researchers were among the favorites for the chemistry laurel.

Last year, this prize was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier from France and Jennifer Doudna from the United States, two geneticists who developed the “scissors” capable of modifying human genes, a revolutionary feat.

The Nobel season will continue on Thursday with the Literature, Peace Friday and Economics Prizes on Monday.

All Nobel laureates follow a similar election process: scientists, academics or university professors nominate their candidates and the different Nobel committees set up multiple screens to choose the laureate (s), up to three per prize. And they have the same financial endowment, this year of 10 million Swedish kronor (980,000 euros, $ 1.1 million).

NO CLEAR FAVORITES IN LITERATURE AND THE PRICE OF PEACE

The two Nobel Prize winners who generate the most expectations each year, Literature and Peace, are presented this time without clear favorites in the previous pools.

Thus, for the Literature class, classic speculations from recent years appear, such as the Japanese Haruki Murakami, the Kenyan Ngugi Wa Thiongo and the Guadeloupean Maryse Condé.

Among those who succeed the American poet Louis Glück among the laureates, there are also other lyrical artists such as the Canadian Anne Carson, her compatriot the narrator Margaret Atwood and the Russian novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya.

The prize pools for the Nobel Peace Prize, which last year awarded the United Nations World Food Program, are dominated by candidates linked to the defense of journalists, the environment and health issues.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg are some of the names ringing for the award. prestigious. .

ONLY 6% OF WINNERS ARE WOMEN

Since the failure of the first edition of the prizes in 1901, the Nobels – who have been deserted 49 times – have distinguished until 2020 930 people and 25 organizations, some on several occasions, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross , the American biochemist Linus Pauling or the scientist Marie Curie.

Curie won Physics in 1903, shared with her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel, and Chemistry alone in 1911, a rarity in the list of Nobel laureates, in which women nevertheless play a marginal role.

Only 6% of the total laureates are women (57 in total), and almost half of them (28) have been honored in the past two decades.

In the last edition, there were four laureates: the American Andrea Ghez (Physics), her compatriot Jennifer A. Doudna and the French Emmanuelle Charpentier (Chemistry), and the American Louise Glück (Literature).

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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