The Path to Invention and Discovery in Catalysis
A conversation between 2021 Nobel laureate in chemistry David W.C. MacMillan and Purdue President Mung Chiang
Date: Monday, Feb. 13
Time: 6-7 p.m. ET
Location: Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall
The event is free and open to the public.
Renowned professor and entrepreneur David W.C. MacMillan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his groundbreaking work on catalysis.
The Scottish-born MacMillan and organic chemist Benjamin List of Germany developed a type of catalysis in 2000 that builds upon small organic molecules. Catalysts are substances that accelerate chemical reactions without becoming part of the final product, an especially important factor for chemists in their efforts to construct molecules.
Using a process called asymmetric organocatalysis, MacMillan and List’s toolkit now makes it easier to produce asymmetric molecules — chemicals that exist in two versions where, like our human hands, one is a mirror image of the other. Their pioneering process has paved the way for discovering new drugs and even making molecules that can capture light in solar cells. Chemistry also is made more environmentally friendly because of their innovation.
MacMillan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018, and he became a fellow of the Royal Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012. He is the co-founder of Chiromics LLC, Penn PhD LLC, Dexterity Pharma LLC and Antenna Bio LLC — companies that focus on new strategies and screening techniques to identify druglike molecules.
Q&A with David W.C. MacMillan
Renowned researcher and entrepreneur David W.C. MacMillan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University who shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his groundbreaking work on catalysis, joins Purdue University President Mung Chiang for a Presidential Lecture Series conversation Feb. 13.
In advance of his Purdue visit, Professor MacMillan answered a few questions posed to him on several topics: the origins of his research in catalysis and the applications for our world from his pioneering work, why collaboration is essential to finding answers to the grand challenges of our time, and his interactions with and impressions of a young engineering professor at Princeton who went on to become the 13th president of Purdue.
Q: Your 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was shared with organic chemist Benjamin List of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Germany for your development of asymmetric organocatalysis, the innovative molecular construction tool. When did you realize your persistence and passion would amount to a meaningful scientific breakthrough, that that Eureka moment had been achieved?
A: Did I know that asymmetric organocatalysis would be what it became? That would be impossible to predict. But the “Eureka moment” was the idea itself, not the result. It was a realization of, “Wait a moment, I think this could potentially be really interesting and exciting, and definitely worth trying.” Results are just a yes or no, a validation of your ideas. It’s the idea itself that is the important part.
One of the graduate students in my lab at the time asked me about the mechanism of a particular reaction. So, I went to the board, and just as I was explaining the idea — Bing! — it was like the “Tom and Jerry” (cartoon) lightbulb moment. And, literally, we tried it that afternoon and it worked.
The other important part was, way back then, I thought this was going to be a huge field. But the field didn’t exist yet, and I had no idea how to bring it to life. It was a case of me sitting around saying, “If we could only figure out how to create this field, it will be enormous.” So, you have that in the back of your head and then something triggers you. Your brain is ready to make that leap. Without being too grandiose, Louis Pasteur said: “Fortune favors the prepared mind.” I know a lot of scientists who use this quote. And I think that’s exactly what this was. This was something I knew we wanted to do, so when this serendipitous moment came along, it all came together. If I hadn’t wanted to develop that field in the first place, that question from my grad student would have been a simple classroom question and nothing more.
Q: Related to your groundbreaking work with Professor List, describe what collaboration means to you as a researcher and instructor, how you approach it, and the essential role working as a team member and partner has played in your professional and academic career?
A: Ben and I were working independently of each other. And honestly, I didn’t become a collaborator until I was at least 15 years into my career. Collaboration is very important. But it’s also important to do your own thing for a while. You’ve got to figure out who you are and what you bring to the table. That’s really important, because it gives you the confidence to let you know you belong at the table in the first place. And then, since we all don’t have expertise in everything, you have to figure out how to work with other people. I think that the closer you can get to a 50/50 collaboration, the more exciting and valuable it becomes.
Q: What career advice do you give undergraduate and graduate students who are inspired by your academic success and accomplishments?
A: Well, I certainly don’t want to claim that anyone is inspired by me. But I would give students the advice that you don’t have to settle for the first subject that comes along. You should sample and test and be involved with as many different subjects and interests as you can while you’re in college. This will really give you a sense of all the different, amazing areas of science and knowledge and research out there. And by doing that, you’ll start to develop a passion for a specific one — it will align with the way you think. And through that understanding of your own passions, it will help you define what course you want to set for yourself as you develop into a scientist.
Q: What was the main motivation behind your decision after winning the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to use your share of the proceeds to create a charitable fund in honor of your parents?
A: My parents cared enormously about giving us opportunities — they’d give you the shirts off their backs to allow you to better yourself. And they cared about education; my whole family did. So, this seemed like a great way to honor what they did for me and my siblings, my brother and sister. I also want others to understand that my parents had a bigger impact than just kicking me out the front door and saying, “Get to uni(versity).”
Interestingly, we’ve just made the inaugural gift from the May and Billy MacMillan Charitable Fund to my undergraduate alma mater, the University of Glasgow. It will support a series of scholarships that will allow people to pay their living expenses, to pay for uni(versity) and to access a college education later in life. My wife, Jean, and I are both humbled and proud to be able to make this gift.
Q: You will be speaking at a public, land-grant university whose two Nobel Prize winners were both in chemistry — Dr. Herbert Brown in 1979 and the chemistry researcher he mentored for many years, Dr. Ei-ichi Negishi, in 2010. What are your perceptions of Purdue, of our College of Science’s Department of Chemistry? And have you collaborated or interacted with any of Purdue’s faculty members?
A: Purdue is world-renowned as a tremendous chemistry group and wonderful chemistry department. Profound discoveries that benefit society through chemistry have come from Purdue; it’s famous for being able to do that. The chemistry department itself continues to have the best and the brightest. It’s very progressive in the sciences. It deservedly has won Nobel Prizes, and undoubtedly will do so again.
I have not worked with anyone at Purdue, but I do follow the work of Chris Uyeda (the Richard B. Wetherill Professor of Chemistry) and find him and many others there publishing some of the most exciting new developments in chemistry.
Q: This Purdue visit is a reunion of sorts for you with our new president, Dr. Mung Chiang, who was the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton before he came to Purdue in 2017 as the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering. What were your impressions of Dr. Chiang as a fellow faculty member during his 12-plus years at Princeton? How meaningful will it be to catch up with him as his first Presidential Lecture Series guest at Purdue?
A: Mung is an awesome guy, an awesome professor, and a mover and shaker. You can spend 15 minutes with him and realize you’re in the presence of someone who’s going to have an impact by sheer force of will. At the same time, he’s a great communicator and a great statesman. He has a real sense of people. To get the chance to interact with him again is going to be a real treat for me. I was on one committee with him that lasted many years, and I was always taken aback by his dedication to doing the job at a level of desire and care that most people don’t reach. It was a very large committee with people from all kinds of different backgrounds, and Mung brought everyone along. I walked away from that experience just having tremendous respect for him as someone who knows how to make a difference.
Q: Without giving away the ending, what do you hope your Purdue audience takes away from your Presidential Lecture Series conversation with President Chiang?
A: I hope that people will take away the understanding that as scientists, you can come from any background, you can come from any country. It really is about being excited about what you do. It’s about being passionate. And ultimately, any person can have an impact. I’ve been lucky to work with so many great students and postdocs and professors, and the world of chemistry is to me a very, very exciting one. The sheer number of new directions that are available to us right now is so inspiring. In the end, I hope that people leave the lecture with a sense of optimism about what science can do for society.
Writer: Phillip Fiorini, pfiorini@purdue.edu
