| Citation | Professor of Chemistry and Department Chair, Department of Chemistry, Princeton University. Distinguished for his pioneering role in opening up and defining the area of asymmetric organocatalysis. This new field has revolutionised organic reaction methodology and chemical synthesis over the past 10 years. MacMillan has discovered new iminium ion catalysts and has designed over 50 new chemical reaction processes. His work is always inventive and creative and has provided considerable insight and leadership that others can only follow. He continues to discover brilliant new processes of molecule activation that include SOMO catalysis (in 2007) and photoredox organocatalysis (in 2008). These discoveries open up vast new opportunities for molecule assembly and have caused a step change in thinking and reaction design. MacMillan has also applied his methods in the most elegant manner in the efficient and truly beautiful syntheses of several complex natural products.
|