[ad_1]
The couple received the award “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”. Their findings “initiated a whole new way of thinking about how to put chemical molecules together,” said Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
“This new toolkit is widely used today, for example in drug discovery and in the production of fine chemicals, and is already of great benefit to mankind,” Wittung-Stafshede added.
In 2000, the two researchers discovered a third type of catalyst – a substance that causes a chemical reaction – called asymmetric organocatalysis. Scientists previously believed that there were only two types of catalysts: metals and enzymes.
“This concept of catalysis is as simple as it is ingenious, and the fact is that many people have wondered why we had not thought of it sooner,” said Johan Åqvist, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
The new catalysts have been used in a number of ways over the past two decades, including to create new pharmaceuticals and build molecules that capture light in solar cells. The committee credited them with “bringing the greatest benefit to mankind.”
“I hope to live up to this recognition and continue to discover amazing things,” List told reporters after being announced as the winner.
List said he was having coffee with his wife when he got the call from the Nobel Committee. “Sweden shows up on my phone, and I look at her, she looks at me and I run out of coffee and, you know, it was amazing. It was very special,” he said.
[ad_2]
Source link