NewzThe Nobel Committee for Chemistry announces the 2026 laureates, Kenso Soai and Henri Kagan, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. (EPA Images pic)STOCKHOLM: Scientists Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving a long-standing riddle of how to form a single molecular mirror image, a discovery hugely important for pharmaceutical manufacturing, the award-giving body said on Wednesday."This is the most exciting day in my life, I am very glad to share this prize with professor Henri Kagan," Soai said, speaking by phone to the Nobel Prize press conference, adding he had been out shopping when receiving the news.Soai is Japanese, and Kagan French.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.Many of the molecules essential to life exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, like left and right hands, he said. Yet living organisms almost exclusively use only one version, a phenomenon known as "homochirality" – from the Greek word for hand – that has puzzled chemists for more than a century.This year's prize was awarded for discoveries that showed how chemical reactions can be driven to favour a single molecular mirror image, work that has been key for chemists who design reactions for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals."Many of the drug molecules occur in two variants that are each other's non-identical mirror image: one has the therapeutic effect, while the other can cause unnecessary and sometimes harmful side effects," the Nobel Foundation said.Last year's chemistry award went to scientists Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi for the development of so-called metal–organic frameworks, molecular constructions that can help tackle challenges such as climate change and lack of fresh water.The laureates will receive their medals from Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
The awards are followed by a lavish banquet at Stockholm City Hall.They also share 12 million Swedish crowns (US$1.2 million), as well as the fame of winning arguably the world's most prestigious science award.The peace prize, the only Nob… The chemistry Nobel, always the third prize to be awarded during Nobel week, followed those for medicine and physics announced on Monday and Tuesday. Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for their efforts to resolve mysterious mirror images in chemical molecules.“Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have provided a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old: how homochirality can emerge spontaneously,” Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said in a news release.
“The chemical reactions they have developed are spectacular.”The duo's discoveries, the news release said, “have been decisive for chemists who design reactions for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.”Kagan, 95 years old and born in France, is affiliated with Université Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, and Soai, born in Japan, with the Tokyo University of Science.Soai said he was shopping near his home when he was reached by the Nobel committee.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winner in Stockholm.Last year, three scientists won the chemistry Nobel for their development of new molecular structures that can trap vast quantities of gas inside, laying the groundwork to potentially suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or harvest moisture from desert environments.This year's prizes began with the Nobel for medicine, awarded Monday to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award Tuesday recognized a scientist's efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos.The literature prize is set to be awarded Thursday. After Friday’s peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, a small group of laureates or an organization.———This story has been corrected to clarify that Kagan, and not Soai, is 95 years old.___Dazio reported from Berlin.___AP Nobel Prizes: https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually as part of the Nobel Prizes established under the will of Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel. Nobel, who made his fortune through inventions including dynamite, specified that prizes should be awarded to those who had made the “greatest benefit to humankind” in five fields: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Henri B.
Kagan and Kenso Soai for solving the mystery of why only one version of some molecules’ mirror-image forms appears in nature, a discovery decisive for the development of pharmaceuticals. The pair were honoured “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis”, the jury said. Like hands, all amino acids exist as two mirrored variants, but only one of them is found in the proteins in the body’s...
Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry "for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Wednesday. Nobel Prize recipients receive a prize of 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million). Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking discoveries related to the origin of chirality and life's building blocks.
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