Japan's Kenso Soai and France's Henri Kagan win Nobel chemistry prize

· Politics · Japan · France

Japanese scientist Kenso Soai and France's Henri B. Kagan won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving the mystery of life's asymmetry, the award committee said. The prize recognizes their discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis, work that explains why biological molecules overwhelmingly come in one mirror-image form. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award in Stockholm. The chemistry prize follows this year's physics award for neutrino research.

Why it matters：The work underpins how chirality shapes pharmaceuticals and biology, a discovery with broad implications for drug design and our understanding of life's molecular origins.

Key points

  • The prize cites non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.
  • Soai is a Japanese scientist; Kagan is French.
  • The chemistry award follows the physics prize for neutrino research.

Sources (original reporting)

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