Kagan and Soai Win 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Overview

• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday that French chemist Henri Boris Kagan and Japanese chemist Kensō Soai are the joint winners of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on non‑linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric synthesis.
• Non‑linear effects and autocatalysis are reaction behaviors that let a very small initial excess of one molecular mirror image grow until one enantiomer dominates, a mechanism that helps explain biological homoquirality.
• The Nobel citation says those advances let chemists make enantiopure compounds more reliably, which matters because the wrong mirror image of a drug can be ineffective or harmful.
• The laureates will share 12 million Swedish kronor after a 2026 adjustment tied to the prize's 125th anniversary and will receive their medals and diplomas at the Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm in December.
• The award also revisits a long‑running omission by restoring recognition to Kagan, whose pioneering work on asymmetric catalysis was not included in the 2001 chemistry prize and is now reframed by this honor.