The Carlsberg Foundation Research Prize 2017: Karl Anker Jørgensen

Professor of chemistry at Aarhus University, Karl Anker Jørgensen receives the prize for his groundbreaking research in homogeneous catalysis with a focus on metal-catalysed oxidation reactions and asymmetrical catalysis. The latter catalysts are able to control the three-dimensional formation and structure of molecules that exist as mirror images of one another so that only one of the mirror-image molecules is created. In living organisms, only one mirror-image form of a given molecule exists, so research into the chemistry of these molecules has much wider implications and teaches us about the foundation of all things living - from humans to animals and plants.