News Desk: Dhaka,
Oct-06,
Germany's Benjamin List
and David MacMillan of the United States on Wednesday won the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry for their development of a precise new tool for molecular
construction, the
jury said.
The duo was awarded
"for their development of a precise new tool for molecular construction:
organocatalysis. This has had a great impact on pharmaceutical research, and
has made chemistry greener," the Nobel Committee said.
List and MacMillan,
both 53, will share the 10-million-kronor ($1.1-million, one-million-euro)
prize.
MacMillan is a
professor at Princeton University in the US, while List is a director at the
Max Planck Institute in Germany.
"Many research
areas and industries are dependent on chemists' ability to construct molecules
that can form elastic and durable materials, store energy in batteries or
inhibit the progression of disease," the Nobel Committee at the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
"This work
requires catalysts, which are substances that control and accelerate chemical reactions, without becoming
part of the final product," it added, noting that prior to the work of the
laureates, scientists believed there were only two types of catalysts, metals
and enzymes.
In 2000, the
researchers, working independently of each other, developed a third type,
called "asymmetric organocatalysis", which relies on small organic
molecules.
Ahead of this year's
announcement, analysts said the field was wide open.
According to Clarivate,
which maintains a list of potential Nobel Prize winners, more than 70
researchers had what it takes to be considered for the prize in chemistry,
given the thousands of citations they have received in scientific papers.
Last year, the Nobel
went to Frenchwoman Emmanuelle Charpentier and American Jennifer Doudna, for
developing the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR-Cas9 -- DNA snipping
"scissors".
The Nobel season
continues on Thursday with the much-anticipated prize for literature and with peace
on Friday before the economics prize winds things up on Monday, October 11.
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