Nobel laureate urges revolutionary breakthroughs at Shanghai forum

Nobel Prize-winning chemist Benjamin List encouraged students to embrace "crazy ideas" and pursue revolutionary breakthroughs during a talk on cutting-edge developments in organocatalysis at Fudan University on Monday.

Speaking at the Shanghai Master Forum on Science, the German scientist distilled his advice for aspiring researchers into three principles: follow your enthusiasm, be open to new ideas and aim high.

"If you want to accomplish something great, you have to aim high. You can't have a medium goal," List said. "If it's a medium goal, you will reach mediocrity."

List, director at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in chemistry with American scientist David MacMillan for developing asymmetric organocatalysis, a technique that uses simple organic molecules to catalyze chemical reactions. The discovery has enabled chemists to build molecules more precisely and sustainably.

His breakthrough began with an observation in 1997. While studying enzyme mechanisms, List noticed an enzyme catalyzing reactions without any metal, using only an amino group and an acidic group. Sensing new possibilities, he experimented with proline — a simple, nontoxic amino acid that humans synthesize naturally. The gamble paid off.