Benjamin List and David MacMillan win 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Credit: Twitter / The Nobel Prize

New Delhi: The 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Benjamin List and David WC MacMillan on Wednesday (October 6). The German-Scottish duo bagged the prestigious award for the development of ‘asymmetric organocatalysis’.

The award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over Rs 8.5 crore). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

Last year, the prize went to Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer A. Doudna of the United States for developing a gene-editing tool that has revolutionized science by providing a way to alter DNA.

On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize in physiology or medicine to Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch.

The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded Tuesday to three scientists whose work found order in seeming disorder, helping to explain and predict complex forces of nature, including expanding our understanding of climate change.