Soai Heard of Nobel Prize at a Supermarket, Shares Win with Kagan

Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on molecular “mirror images.” The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (RSAS) cited their discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.

Soai heard about the prize by phone while he was shopping at a neighborhood supermarket. He then spoke by phone with the Nobel committee and journalists. He said: “I’m very excited to receive the very nice news.” He added: “Of course, this is one of the most exciting days in my life.”

How their work won the prize: 

Many molecules, such as amino acids, exist in two mirror-image forms, like left and right hands. Living organisms use only one form. The two forms can behave very differently. For example, one version of the chemical carvone smells like mint, while the other smells like caraway, the spice used in rye bread. In medicine, the wrong form can be wasteful or harmful.

• Kagan (France, born 1930) discovered in the 1980s a way to control reactions so that one mirror image forms in much greater excess than chemists thought possible.
• Soai (Japan, born 1950) designed and ran, in 2003, the first reaction that produced only one of the mirror images. RSAS calls the “Soai reaction” “one of the most spectacular chemical experiments ever conducted.”

Together, their work shows how to design and start reactions that make more of the useful molecule and less of its mirror image. It also helps explain how homochirality, where life uses only one form, can arise spontaneously. Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said they “have provided a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old.”

The American Chemical Society president, Rigoberto Hernandez, said, “The medicines we have today would not be possible without this chemistry.

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They share a prize of 12 million Swedish kronor (about €1.07 million), which will be divided equally between the two laureates.

Soai was shopping at a neighborhood supermarket when he heard the news. He told the Nobel committee and journalists by phone, “Of course, this is one of the most exciting days in my life.”