David MacMillan: From a Scottish Working-Class Family to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

David W. C. MacMillan was born in 1968 in Bellshill, Scotland, and is now the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University. He is known for naming organocatalysis, developing iminium catalysis, SOMO catalysis and, later, photoredox and metallaphotoredox catalysis. In 2021 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Benjamin List. His legacy in one line: he made light and small organic molecules into powerful tools for building the molecules of medicine.

Early Life and Family

MacMillan was born on 16 March 1968 in Bellshill, near Glasgow, Scotland. He grew up in a modest family; by his own account his father worked as a steelworker (a job in the industrial belt of Lanarkshire) and his family valued education. He has often mentioned that his mother encouraged him to study and that he was inspired by his school teachers, including a chemistry teacher. He has spoken warmly about his Scottish roots in interviews and still speaks with a Scottish accent.

Education and Mentors

MacMillan studied chemistry at the University of Glasgow, completing his bachelor's degree in 1991. He then moved to the United States for graduate studies at the University of California, Irvine and received his PhD in 1996, working with Larry Overman on total synthesis. He then did a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University with David Evans, an expert in asymmetric synthesis and Lewis acid catalysis. This is where his interest in designing enantioselective catalysts grew.

Career Timeline

Major Scientific Contributions

Iminium catalysis (2000). Using chiral imidazolidinone catalysts, MacMillan showed that alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes can be activated toward enantioselective Diels-Alder and conjugate addition reactions. Read our discovery post for the mechanism.

Organocascade reactions. His group combined several catalytic steps in one pot, and used these cascades to make complex natural products, such as strychnine, efficiently.

SOMO catalysis (2007). By oxidising an enamine to a radical cation, his group opened a new reactivity pattern for the enantioselective alpha-functionalisation of aldehydes.

Photoredox catalysis and metallaphotoredox. Starting around 2008, he combined visible-light photoredox catalysts with organocatalysts and later with nickel catalysis. These reactions form carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds under mild conditions and are widely used in drug discovery. His Merck Center for Catalysis at Princeton works closely with industry.

Awards, Honours and Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 was awarded jointly to Benjamin List and David MacMillan "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis". MacMillan has also received many other honours during his career, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2020, shared with Benjamin List), and election to the US National Academy of Sciences. He is also known as a teacher and mentor who has trained many students who now lead their own research groups. Only awards that we are certain about are listed here.

Personality, Struggles and Lesser-Known Facts

• Shared prize, shared friendship. He and List had known each other's work for two decades and had also shared the 2020 Wolf Prize before the Nobel.
• Naming a field. The word "organocatalysis" was introduced by MacMillan in his 2000 paper. Naming a field is itself a scientific contribution because it helps others find and cite work.
• Industrial collaboration. He is known for close links with pharmaceutical companies, which helped his photoredox methods get adopted quickly.
• Changing coasts. After beginning at Berkeley, he moved to Caltech and then to Princeton; each move expanded his research programme.
• Scottish pride. The University of Glasgow celebrated his Nobel Prize as one of its own graduates.

Legacy and Influence on Modern Chemistry

MacMillan's work changed how chemists think about activating molecules. Before 2000, if you wanted a chiral Diels-Alder reaction you looked for a chiral Lewis acid. Today you can choose from a toolbox of amines, acids, hydrogen-bond donors and photocatalysts. His photoredox methods allow chemists to use abundant functional groups, such as carboxylic acids and alcohols, as coupling partners. This approach has been adopted in pharmaceutical research worldwide, including at research centres in India.

He has also shaped the culture of chemistry by emphasising collaboration between academia and industry and by building a large and diverse research group.

Lessons for Students

1. Background does not limit you. A boy from a Scottish steel town became a Nobel laureate.
2. Learn the fundamentals. Frontier orbital theory (HOMO and LUMO) guided the discovery of iminium catalysis.
3. Combine ideas. His best-known later work came from mixing photoredox and organocatalysis or nickel catalysis.
4. Be bold with names and concepts. A clear concept makes a field visible.
5. Value teaching. He credits teachers and students for his success.

FAQ

Where does David MacMillan work?

He is a professor of chemistry at Princeton University in New Jersey, USA.

What is the difference between his work and Benjamin List's?

List used proline and enamine intermediates; MacMillan used imidazolidinone catalysts and iminium intermediates. Both are asymmetric organocatalysis.

What is metallaphotoredox catalysis?

It combines a light-absorbing photocatalyst with a transition-metal catalyst, such as nickel, to make bonds that are hard to form by traditional methods.

Which exam topics relate to his work?

Diels-Alder reactions, frontier molecular orbital theory, enantiomeric excess, enamine and iminium chemistry, and asymmetric synthesis.

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