David McMillan: “Me, Nobel by chance: in the physics classrooms it rained on the benches so I chose chemistry”

“But what Nobel, let me sleep!”: David MacMillan, 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Benjamin List, to the last, on the night of the announcements from Stockholm, he believed he was the victim of a joke. But it was all true. His research on how to make chemical reactions more efficient and environmentally friendly – using organic carbon-based molecules instead of the toxic metals and compounds that are used today as catalysts – has been recognized as crucial for a greener future.