Watch | All about the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

A view of the screen as the winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry are announced, Benjamin List of Germany and Scotland-born David W.C. MacMillan, in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. (Source: AP)

The Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded to German scientist Benjamin List of the Max Planck Institute and Scotland-born scientist David WC MacMillan of Princeton University.

They were cited for their work in developing a new way for building molecules known as “asymmetric organocatalysis.” The winners were announced Wednesday by Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The Nobel panel said Mr List and Mr MacMillan in 2000 independently developed a new way of catalysis.

“It's already benefiting humankind greatly,” Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, a member of the Nobel panel, said.