Born to an upper-middle-class family of scientists and artists[1] in Frankfurt, List is a great-grandson of the cardiologist Franz Volhard and a 2nd great-grandson of the chemist Jacob Volhard.[3] His aunt, the 1995 Nobel laureate in medicine Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, is the sister of his mother, architect Heidi List.[1][4] At age three, his parents divorced.[3]
In 2003 he returned to Germany to become group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, and in 2005 he became one of the institute's directors, heading the Homogeneous Catalysis Department.[3][12] He served as the institute's managing director from 2012 to 2014.[7] He has held a part-time position as an honorary professor of organic chemistry at the University of Cologne since 2004.[10][11] List is also a principal investigator at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery, Hokkaido University since 2018.[13][14] He is the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Synlett.[15]As of 2021[update], he has an h-index of 95 according to Google Scholar[16] and of 86 according to Scopus.[17]
List is considered to be one of the founders of organocatalysis, which uses non-metal and non-enzyme catalysts.[18] In particular, while still an assistant professor he discovered the possibility of using the amino acid proline as an efficient chiral catalyst.[18][19] This takes place in intermolecular aldol reactions, in which carbon atoms from two different molecules are bonded together, induced by proline.[18][19][20] The development is based on the Hajos–Parrish–Eder–Sauer–Wiechert reaction.[21][22] Subsequently, he developed the first proline-catalyzed Mannich,[23]Michael,[24] and α-amination reactions.[25][26] He found asymmetric catalysis (especially Asymmetric counteranion directed catalysis, ACDC).[27][28] He developed also new methods of textile organic catalysis, in which soluble organic catalysts and textiles are bound.[29] These methods could, for example, help to treat water where there is no fresh water.[18] Asymmetric organocatalysis[26] is particularly important in bioactive organic compounds, where the chirality of the compounds is important, for example in drug production.[20]
On 6 October 2021, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with David MacMillan "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis."[2] The development has great influence on pharmaceutical research and the drug production and "made chemistry greener".[30]
List's parents sought to raise their children with an anti-authoritarian parenting style; he has admitted occasionally using the approach with his own children, stating that "you may only be 12, but if you think it will do you good to eat ten chocolate bars, then go ahead and do it. I have faith in you. But my advice is: I wouldn't do it."[3]
Kaib, Philip S. J.; Schreyer, Lucas; Lee, Sunggi; Properzi, Roberta; List, Benjamin (6 October 2016). "Extremely Active Organocatalysts Enable a Highly Enantioselective Addition of Allyltrimethylsilane to Aldehydes". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 55 (42). Wiley: 13200–13203. doi:10.1002/anie.201607828. ISSN1433-7851. PMID27653018.
Mulzer, Johann; List, Benjamin; Bats, Jan W. (1 June 1997). "Stereocontrolled Synthesis of a Nonracemic Vitamin B12 A−B-Semicorrin". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 119 (24). American Chemical Society (ACS): 5512–5518. doi:10.1021/ja9700515. ISSN0002-7863.
"LIST, Benjamin". ICReDD: Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery, Hokkaido University (WPI-ICReDD). 23 December 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
Hajos, Zoltan G.; Parrish, David R. (1974). "Asymmetric synthesis of bicyclic intermediates of natural product chemistry". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 39 (12). American Chemical Society (ACS): 1615–1621. doi:10.1021/jo00925a003. ISSN0022-3263.
List, Benjamin; Pojarliev, Peter; Biller, William T.; Martin, Harry J. (10 January 2002). "The Proline-Catalyzed Direct Asymmetric Three-Component Mannich Reaction: Scope, Optimization, and Application to the Highly Enantioselective Synthesis of 1,2-Amino Alcohols". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 124 (5). American Chemical Society (ACS): 827–833. doi:10.1021/ja0174231. ISSN0002-7863. PMID11817958.
List, Benjamin; Pojarliev, Peter; Martin, Harry J. (14 July 2001). "Efficient Proline-Catalyzed Michael Additions of Unmodified Ketones to Nitro Olefins". Organic Letters. 3 (16). American Chemical Society (ACS): 2423–2425. doi:10.1021/ol015799d. ISSN1523-7060. PMID11483025.
List, Benjamin (30 April 2002). "Direct Catalytic Asymmetric α-Amination of Aldehydes". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 124 (20). American Chemical Society (ACS): 5656–5657. doi:10.1021/ja0261325. ISSN0002-7863. PMID12010036.
