Chemistry Nobel 2026 goes to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for teaching molecules to pick a side

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 7 October to Henri B. Kagan of Universite Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, and Kenso Soai of Tokyo University of Science, who share it equally. The citation reads: for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. Many molecules come in left-handed and right-handed forms that behave very differently in the body, and the laureates' work explains how a tiny imbalance between the two can amplify itself into an overwhelming one. Kagan, born in 1930, showed that the effect need not be proportional to the purity of the catalyst; Soai, born in 1950, found a reaction that makes more of its own left-handed or right-handed product as it runs. The prize is 12 million Swedish kronor, divided equally.

NobelPrize.org: the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 · 7 October 2026

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