Henri B Kagan and Kenso Soai win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai were awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday. DW, the South China Morning Post, and The New York Times reported that the two scientists won the award for their discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. [1][2][3][8][9][10][11]

The South China Morning Post reported that Kagan is affiliated with Universite Paris-Sud in France, while 95-year-old Soai is associated with the Tokyo University of Science. France 24 and Le Monde also confirmed that Kagan is from France and Soai is from Japan. [2][8][11]

Kagan is an emeritus professor at Universite Paris-Saclay who pioneered work in asymmetric catalysis, while Soai is a lecturer in the applied chemistry department at the Tokyo University of Science. The Nobel Prizes were established through the will of Alfred Nobel and first awarded in 1901 to honor achievements that provide the greatest benefit to humankind. [12][13][14][15]

The announcement follows the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded on Tuesday to Belgian physicist Francis Halzen for his work on subatomic neutrino particles in Antarctica, as Fortune, abc.net.au, and FTMQ News reported earlier. [4][5][7][16]