The 2021 NobelPrize in Chemistry has been awarded to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.” This has had a great impact on pharmaceutical research, and has made chemistry greener.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established this Prize in memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize.
• The most common research field for Nobel Laureates in chemistry is   biochemistry. It is the field for 50 Nobel Laureates.
• Frederick Sanger has been awarded twice.
• The Curies were the most successful “Nobel Prize family”. The husband-and-wife partnership of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie were awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie Curie herself was awarded the Nobel Prize a second time, receiving the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Marie and Pierre Curie’s eldest daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with her husband, Frédéric Joliot. The younger daughter, Ève Curie, worked for the UNICEF and was married to Henry R. Labouisse. He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of UNICEF in 1965.