Kegan and Soai discovered how Homochirality can emerge spontaneously. Some molecules, including amino acids, exist as two mirror image variants but organisms contain only one
Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai awarded 2026 Nobel chemistry prize: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Wednesday awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. France’s Henri B. Kagan and Japan’s Kenso Soai were honoured with nobel prize in chemistry ‘for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis,’ the Nobel committee announced.
The chemistry Nobel, always the third prize to be awarded during Nobel week, followed those for medicine and physics, announced on Monday and Tuesday. ‘So this year’s prize is about foundational chemistry,’ said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
Kegan and Soai discovered how Homochirality can emerge spontaneously. Some molecules, including amino acids, exist as two mirror image variants but organisms contain only one. For decades chemists struggle to understand how this asymmetric could arise.
Interestingly, the prize money of this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, a small group of laureates or an organisation.
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Kagan made a breakthrough in 1986 by finding a way to manipulate reactions to produce an excess of one mirror image. Soai designed a reaction with the potential to become homochiral in 1995 and, in 2023, achieved a reaction that formed only one mirror image. Their discoveries have been decisive for pharmaceutical manufacturing.
