We need a rebranding of chemistry: Nobel laureate David MacMillan

Macmillan won the Nobel Prize along with Benjamin List in 2021 for developing a new type of catalysis called asymmetric organocatalysis which builds upon small organic molecules

MUMBAI: Long before he shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2021 for using environmentally friendly molecules as catalysts instead of metals or enzymes, David MacMillan realised the importance of making the world better for everyone. Two routine events sowed the seed of this sentiment— BBC shows in the 1970s and watching the bright-red night skies from his home in New Stevenston, a small village in Scotland sandwiched between two steel works and a coal mine.

Nobel laureate David MacMillan in an interview with Hindustan Times. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

“Every night, at about 1 am, the whole sky would get lit up because the (steel factories) would pour (molten) steel,” he said at an interaction with HT on Thursday in the Spanish Suite of the Taj Mahal Palace, Colaba. “It made me realise that there are people who constantly figure out ways of making the world better for not just a small number of people but for everyone. As for the shows on BBC, they were about what was going to happen in the future. It shaped my curiosity about where the future was going to be (and made me) want to change the world.”

The 57-year-old scientist, along with Nobel Prize laureate James Robinson (economic sciences 2024), was part of the Nobel Prize Dialogue India 2025, hosted by Tata Trusts in collaboration with Nobel Prize Outreach. He won the Nobel Prize along with Benjamin List in 2021 for developing a new type of catalysis called asymmetric organocatalysis which builds upon small organic molecules.

MacMillan owes his love for chemistry to his older brother. “I ended up going to university almost by mistake, because my brother went to university. But once I went there, I realised that I really loved chemistry,” he said, adding that using organic molecules for catalysis was always top of his mind, starting from his postdoc at Harvard University.

Recalling his Eureka moment in his lab, MacMillan said, “It taught me a really great lesson, that first and foremost you should be thinking about what the things are that you want to do even though you have no idea how to do them. That way you start from the end and work your way back to the beginning. It’s important to think of the future you want to see.”

The scientist lamented that the idea of or conversations about what the future was going to look like had “sort of disappeared”. “People don’t talk about the future,” he said. “All you hear about is AI this and AI that. Everyone thinks it’s going to do something but no one really knows what. When we were young, people would say we’ll have flying cars in the future, but at least people had this imagination. We don’t have that as much now, and that’s a real shame because it’s so inspiring.”

On his maiden visit to India, MacMillan’s visit to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research left him impressed. “Youngsters are doing some pretty significant things (in organic chemistry), and I get the impression that’s more and more of what people want to do in India,” he said. “India is massively moving into innovation, and one can see that’s where chemistry too is going. Through the Nobel Prize Dialogue, we are here to further encourage, and press the accelerator even more.”

But when it comes to chemistry there’s one universal problem, said MacMillan. “Chemistry has terrible PR (public relations),” he quipped. “You have people talking about physics and biology but very rarely chemistry. If you’re a biologist, you can tell people you’re working on medicine. A physicist can say they are working on black holes. But if you are a chemist, people have largely no interest in what you’re doing. We need a rebranding of chemistry.”