The 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to two chemists, Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan for their contributions "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis". This paper reviews the source, the innovation and the background of the Nobel prize work. The chiral chemistry, the chiral catalysts and the asymmetric organic catalysis and their control of chirality are explained, along with the categories of the organic catalysis and the catalysts. The important contributions of Chinese scientists in the field of the organic asymmetric catalysis are introduced, and the development, the research status and the future of this field are highlighted.

2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry  /  chirality  /  chiral control  /  chiral organocatalysts  /  asymmetric organocatalysis