Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Announces Nobel Chemistry Prize: French and Japanese Scholars Honoured for Mirror-Image Molecule Work
On Wednesday, October 7, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced in Stockholm that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry had been awarded to French chemist Henri Kagan and Japanese chemist Kenso Soai, for their discoveries of nonlinear effects and asymmetric autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. The two will share the prize sum of 12 million Swedish kronor equally.
Kagan, 95, a professor at Paris-Saclay University, is the third-oldest person ever to receive a Nobel Prize; Soai, 76, is a professor at the Tokyo University of Science. Many molecules essential to life exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, like left and right hands, yet living organisms use almost exclusively only one of them — a phenomenon known as homochirality that puzzled chemists for more than a century. The laureates' work gave chemists ways to produce only the desired form, which matters greatly for pharmaceutical manufacturing: many medicines are effective in only one mirror-image form, while the other can cause side effects.
Speaking by phone to the Nobel Prize press conference, Soai said it was the most exciting day of his life and that he was very glad to share the prize with Professor Kagan; he added that he had been out grocery shopping when he received the news. French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated the laureates on social media, calling the award a recognition suited to a lifetime of research, and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also telephoned Soai with congratulations.
Kagan's prize closes a 25-year-old chapter: in 2001, when the chemistry prize went to other researchers in the same field of asymmetric catalysis, France's research minister at the time complained to the Nobel Foundation that Kagan had been left out. He has now received the prize at the age of 95.
Sources: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announcement, Reuters and Le Monde, October 7, 2026.
Source: 瑞典皇家科学院、路透社
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 瑞典皇家科学院主楼。摄影：I99pema，CC BY-SA 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
