Scientist: Benjamin List

Prof. Dr Benjamin List was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on asymmetric catalysis alongside David MacMillan from Princeton University. He studied chemistry at the Free University of Berlin and earned his doctorate at Goethe University Frankfurt (1997, Prof. G. Mulzer). He worked at the Scripps Research Institute Department of Molecular Biology in La Jolla, USA as a postdoctoral researcher in the labs of Carlos F. Barbas III and Richard Lerner from 1997 to 1998 and as an assistant professor from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, he joined the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research as the leader of a research group and in 2005, he became one of the institute’s directors, a position in which he still serves. He is also currently a Specially Appointed Professor at Hokkaido University, Japan (since 2020) and Honorary Professor at the University of Cologne (since 2004). Prof. List is a highly decorated scientist and has been awarded dozens of prestigious prizes and appointments in the field of chemistry. He shared his fascination with catalysis with the audience at the 71st Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting and spoke about the beauty of photosynthesis. He says he is already living his dream as a researcher and hopes to find a way to stop global warming by converting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the help of sunlight.