The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize for non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. The laureates share 12 million kronor.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Henri B. Kagan of Universite Paris-Sud and Kenso Soai of Tokyo University of Science, the Nobel Foundation said on Wednesday. The citation is for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.
The prize addresses a puzzle more than a century old: how living systems came to use only one of two mirror-image forms of molecules such as amino acids. Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said the laureates provided a solution to how homochirality can emerge spontaneously.
Soai was born in 1950 in Hiroshima. Soai took his PhD at the University of Tokyo in 1979 and is professor emeritus at Tokyo University of Science. The prize amount is 12 million Swedish kronor, to be shared equally.
Soai told the Nobel committee he had been out shopping when he was notified, Scientific American reported. He called it one of the most exciting days of his life and said he was glad to share the prize with Kagan.
The announcement is the official award. Press contact listed by the academy is Eva Nevelius.
People Sentiments Positive
- Heiner Linke said Kagan and Soai solved a chemical mystery more than a century old.
- Soai said it was one of the most exciting days of his life and that he was glad to share the prize with Kagan.