Kagan, Soai win Nobel Chemistry Prize for solving chemical asymmetry puzzle

Asia - South China Morning Post · Oct 7, 2026

Scientists Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving a long-standing riddle of asymmetric “mirror image” molecules, a discovery hugely important for pharmaceutical manufacturing, the award-giving body said on Wednesday. Soai, 76, is Japanese, and Kagan, 95, is French, and their work built on a discovery by the 19th century French chemist Louis Pasteur. “This is the most exciting day in my life, I am very glad to share this prize with professor Henri Kagan,”...