WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2026 — On behalf of the American Chemical Society (ACS), President Rigoberto Hernandez congratulates today’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Henri B. Kagan of Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, and Kensō Soai of Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Kagan and Soai equally “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.”
“Kagan and Soai led the way in dreaming and making new ways to control molecular handedness with remarkable precision,” says Hernandez. “Kagan helped establish the principles for producing one molecular form with extraordinary selectivity, while Soai revealed the remarkable phenomenon that such molecules can amplify their own handedness. Just like dancing partners must match, chemistry depends on molecules coming together in the right way. Their discoveries gave chemists unprecedented control over that process, enabling advances in medicines, materials, and so much more.”
Kagan has been an ACS member for 60 years and Soai was an ACS member for 26 years and is a part of the ACS member community. The laureates' seminal papers were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and ACS' Accounts of Chemical Research .
Kagan and Soai have published several other articles on homochirality in some of ACS’ more than 90 peer-reviewed journals and been featured in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the news outlet of ACS. Articles are available upon request.
News media can arrange interviews with Hernandez or other experts in the field by contacting the ACS Newsroom. In addition, ACS will post a special Headline Science short video about the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
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