The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 chemistry Nobel to Kenso Soai and Henri Kagan for work on asymmetric mirror-image molecules used in drug manufacture.
Japanese chemist Kenso Soai and French chemist Henri Kagan won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for discoveries about asymmetric, or mirror-image, molecules. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the work is decisive for chemists who design reactions used to manufacture pharmaceuticals.
Reuters reported that Soai is 76 and Kagan is 95, a professor emeritus at Université Paris-Sud. Their research built on observations by the 19th-century French chemist Louis Pasteur about molecules that are mirror images of each other but are not identical.
Soai told the Nobel press conference by phone that he had been grocery shopping when he learned of the prize and called it the most exciting day of his life. He said he was glad to share the award with Kagan. The New York Times quoted him saying the mystery of these molecules is not fully solved and that he intends to keep working on it.
Peter Somfai, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said the left-handed and right-handed versions of a drug can have different effects, so chemists need methods that prepare only one form. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi congratulated Soai by phone and said she was proud of him as a Japanese, Reuters reported.
The chemistry prize followed this week's medicine and physics announcements. Kagan had been discussed in France as a possible laureate when colleagues in the same field were honored in 2001, the New York Times noted.
People Sentiments Positive
- Kenso Soai told the Nobel press conference it was the most exciting day of his life.
- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told Soai she was proud of him as a Japanese.