Benjamin List

Benjamin List
Born	Benjamin List 11 1, 1968
Birthplace	Frankfurt, West Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation	Chemist, academic
Employer	Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, University of Cologne
Known for	Development of asymmetric organocatalysis
Education	Goethe University Frankfurt (PhD)
Awards	Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2016), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2021)

Benjamin List (born 11 January 1968) is a German chemist whose work on organocatalysis — the use of small organic molecules to accelerate chemical reactions — helped reshape the field of asymmetric synthesis and earned him a share of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Together with Scottish-American chemist David MacMillan, List was recognized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis," a method that provided chemists with a precise and environmentally more benign tool for constructing molecules. List serves as one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung) in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, and holds a professorship of organic chemistry at the University of Cologne. His aunt is the developmental biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995, making the List–Nüsslein-Volhard family one of the few to count two Nobel laureates among close relatives. Over a career spanning more than two decades, List has published extensively and continued to expand the frontiers of organocatalysis, including recent contributions to catalytic asymmetric fragmentation, cyclopropanation, and biomass-based chemical transformations.

Early Life

Benjamin List was born on 11 January 1968 in Frankfurt, then part of West Germany. He grew up in a family with deep roots in the sciences. His aunt, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, is a distinguished developmental biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995 for her discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development. This familial connection to high-level scientific achievement provided an environment in which intellectual curiosity and rigorous inquiry were valued, though List has spoken about forging his own path in the natural sciences.

List has described chemistry as a discipline that offered him a unique perspective on life and the natural world. In an interview with NobelPrize.org, he reflected on the meaning of scientific inquiry and the importance of representing broad human diversity within the scientific community. His early interest in chemistry ultimately led him to pursue formal studies at some of Germany's leading universities.

Education

List began his higher education at the Free University of Berlin, where he earned a Diplom (the German equivalent of a master's degree) in chemistry. He then moved to the Goethe University Frankfurt for his doctoral studies. Working under the supervision of Johann Mulzer, a noted organic chemist, List completed his PhD in 1997 with a thesis entitled Synthese eines Vitamin B₁₂ Semicorrins (Synthesis of a Vitamin B₁₂ Semicorrin). The doctoral work focused on the total synthesis of complex natural product fragments, providing List with a strong foundation in synthetic organic chemistry.

Following his doctorate, List pursued postdoctoral research in the United States, working at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. There he conducted research under Richard Lerner and Carlos F. Barbas III, both prominent figures in the fields of chemical biology and catalytic antibodies. It was during this postdoctoral period that List began the investigations into amino acid–catalyzed reactions that would eventually lead to his groundbreaking contributions to organocatalysis.

Career

Early Research and the Discovery of Proline Catalysis

Benjamin List's seminal contribution to chemistry emerged from a deceptively simple question: could individual amino acids, the building blocks of enzymes, catalyze chemical reactions on their own? Enzymes — large, complex proteins — had long been known to be extraordinarily effective biological catalysts. Metal-based catalysts, meanwhile, had dominated the field of asymmetric synthesis in industrial and academic laboratories. Prior to List's work, the possibility that small, simple organic molecules could serve as effective asymmetric catalysts had been explored only sporadically and was not considered a general principle.

In 2000, while still in the early stages of his independent career, List published a landmark paper demonstrating that the amino acid proline could catalyze an aldol reaction — one of the fundamental carbon–carbon bond-forming reactions in organic chemistry — with high enantioselectivity. This meant that proline, a small and inexpensive organic molecule, could drive the preferential formation of one mirror image form (enantiomer) of a product over the other, a capability that had previously been associated primarily with metal-containing catalysts or enzymes. The work established that organocatalysis could be a viable and general strategy for asymmetric synthesis, standing alongside metal catalysis and biocatalysis as a third pillar of the field.

Independently and roughly contemporaneously, David MacMillan, then at the University of California, Berkeley, reported the use of small organic amines as catalysts for Diels–Alder reactions, coining the term "organocatalysis." The parallel discoveries by List and MacMillan opened up an entirely new area of chemical research, and the two were jointly recognized with the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this body of work.

Max Planck Institute for Coal Research

In 2003, Benjamin List was appointed as a director at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung) in Mülheim an der Ruhr, one of the oldest and most prestigious chemical research institutions in Germany. The institute, founded in 1912, has a distinguished history in catalysis research, having been associated with Nobel laureates Karl Ziegler and Gerhard Ertl. List's appointment placed him within this tradition, and he established the Department of Homogeneous Catalysis, where he and his research group continued to develop new organocatalytic methods and expand the scope and mechanistic understanding of the field.

At the Max Planck Institute, List's research group explored a wide range of organocatalytic activation modes. Building upon the initial proline-catalyzed reactions, the group investigated enamine catalysis, iminium catalysis, Brønsted acid catalysis, and other strategies. A particularly significant line of research involved the development of confined Brønsted acid catalysts — strong chiral acids whose catalytic sites are enclosed within a molecular pocket, allowing for exceptional control over stereochemistry. These catalysts, based on imidodiphosphorimidate frameworks, enabled reactions that had previously been considered extremely difficult or impossible to carry out in an enantioselective fashion.

List also advanced the concept of asymmetric counteranion-directed catalysis (ACDC), in which a chiral counteranion paired with a reactive cation intermediate controls the stereochemical outcome of a reaction. This approach proved broadly applicable, extending organocatalysis beyond traditional covalent activation strategies. Recent publications from List's group have continued to apply this concept, including a 2025 report in Nature Catalysis describing an organocatalytic enantioselective cyclopropanation of olefins using diazoalkanes and asymmetric counteranion-directed catalysis, offering a metal-free alternative to established cyclopropanation methods.

Expanding the Scope of Organocatalysis

Throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s, List's research group continued to push the boundaries of what organocatalysis could achieve. A central theme has been the activation of traditionally unreactive substrates. In October 2024, List and collaborators published a study in Science on the catalytic asymmetric fragmentation of cyclopropanes, addressing the long-standing challenge of stereoselective alkane activation — a problem of fundamental importance in organic chemistry.

Another area of active research involves the application of organocatalysis to sustainability challenges. A 2025 publication in Science, on the photohydrolysis of furans, addressed the conversion of biomass-derived feedstocks into useful chemical products — a key step in the defossilization of the chemical industry. This work exemplifies how the tools of organocatalysis can be directed toward environmentally relevant problems, including the replacement of petroleum-based raw materials with renewable, biomass-based alternatives.

In April 2025, List and colleagues published a study in Nature Communications on bis-indole chiral architectures for asymmetric catalysis, reporting new privileged chiral scaffolds that may enable more effective asymmetric transformations. The ongoing development of new catalyst scaffolds remains a core activity of List's research program.

Academic Positions and International Engagement

In addition to his directorship at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, List holds a professorship of organic chemistry at the University of Cologne. He has also been affiliated with Hokkaido University in Japan, where he has been involved with the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (ICReDD). His engagement with ICReDD reflects an interest in the integration of computational and experimental approaches to reaction design — a growing frontier in modern chemistry.

List has also been a recipient of a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant, which provided substantial funding for his research program in organocatalysis.

Personal Life

Benjamin List's aunt, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, is a Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine (1995), making the family one of a small number worldwide with multiple Nobel Prize winners among close relatives. In interviews, List has spoken about the importance of diversity in science and the need to ensure that the scientific community reflects the full range of human backgrounds and perspectives. He resides in Germany, where he continues his research and academic work.

Recognition

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2021)

On 6 October 2021, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that Benjamin List and David MacMillan had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis." The Nobel Committee cited the transformative impact of their work, noting that organocatalysis had provided chemists with a new, precise tool for molecular construction. The committee emphasized that organocatalytic methods are often simpler to use, less costly, and more environmentally friendly than traditional metal-based catalytic approaches, with applications ranging from pharmaceutical synthesis to the production of fine chemicals.

The Nobel Prize brought international public attention to the field of organocatalysis and to the broader concept that simple organic molecules could rival metals and enzymes as catalysts for complex chemical transformations. List's reaction to the news was described in a profile by the Max Planck Society, which characterized the award as a recognition both of fundamental discovery and of the practical impact that organocatalysis has had across chemistry.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2016)

In 2016, List was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the most prestigious research prize in Germany, administered by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). The Leibniz Prize recognizes outstanding researchers working in Germany and provides substantial research funding. List's receipt of the prize reflected the significance of his contributions to catalysis and organic chemistry.

Other Awards and Honors

Over the course of his career, List has received numerous additional awards and honors from scientific organizations around the world. He has been invited to deliver named lectures at leading universities, including the Herbert C. Brown Lectures in Organic Chemistry at Purdue University in 2019. He has been recognized by the European Research Council with an ERC Advanced Grant, providing significant funding for his ongoing research.

Legacy

Benjamin List's development of asymmetric organocatalysis, together with the independent and complementary work of David MacMillan, established a third major mode of catalysis alongside metal catalysis and biocatalysis. Prior to their discoveries in the early 2000s, asymmetric catalysis relied almost exclusively on transition metal complexes or enzymes. By demonstrating that small organic molecules such as proline could achieve similar levels of selectivity and efficiency, List and MacMillan opened up a new paradigm in synthetic chemistry.

The practical implications of organocatalysis have been extensive. Because small organic molecules are generally less expensive, more stable, and less toxic than many metal-based catalysts, organocatalytic methods have been widely adopted in pharmaceutical research, agrochemical synthesis, and materials science. The elimination of trace metal contamination — a concern in the production of pharmaceuticals and electronic materials — is a particular advantage. Furthermore, organocatalytic reactions can often be performed under milder conditions and with simpler experimental setups, lowering barriers to the synthesis of complex molecules.

List's ongoing research at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research continues to expand the scope of organocatalysis into new reaction types and applications, including the activation of traditionally inert substrates and the valorization of renewable biomass feedstocks. His work on confined Brønsted acid catalysts and asymmetric counteranion-directed catalysis has introduced new conceptual frameworks that have been adopted by research groups worldwide.

As a director at one of the world's leading chemical research institutes and a professor at the University of Cologne, List has trained a generation of young chemists who have gone on to establish their own research programs. The field of organocatalysis, which he co-founded, now constitutes a major area of chemical research, with thousands of publications appearing annually and an expanding array of industrial applications.