Henry Cagan and Kensho Sawai Win 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced yesterday that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to French scientist Henry P. Kagan and Japanese scientist Kenso Soai in recognition of their discoveries in the field of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.

A statement issued by the Academy quoted the prize committee chairman, Heiner Linke, as saying that Professors Kagan and Soai have provided a solution to a chemical puzzle that has persisted for more than a century, concerning how homochirality emerges spontaneously.

The statement described the French and Japanese scientists’ development of chemical reactions as “remarkable,” highlighting the crucial role their discoveries have played in advancing chemical reactions used in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

In 1986, Kagan discovered a new method for controlling chemical reactions, which contributed to producing a greater excess of one of the two mirror-image forms (enantiomers). In 1995, Soai designed the first chemical reaction capable of producing a homochiral form, and in 2003 he succeeded in achieving a reaction that yielded only one of the two mirror-image forms.

Henry P. Kagan was born in 1930 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. He earned his doctorate in 1960 from the Collège de France and is a professor emeritus at Paris-Saclay University (formerly Paris-Sud University).

Kenso Soai was born in 1950 in Hiroshima, Japan. He received his doctorate in 1979 from the University of Tokyo and is a professor emeritus at the Tokyo University of Science.