Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai were honoured for discoveries explaining how chemical reactions can favour one mirror-image molecule, a finding relevant to safer drug manufacturing.

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• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 7 October 2026.
• Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai were recognised for discovering non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.
• Some chemical reactions create two molecules that are mirror images of each other, a property known as chirality.
• How such asymmetry, or homochirality, could emerge was long a mystery to chemists, and the committee described it as over a century old.
• Homochirality is the single-handedness found in all living beings, and the prize recognises discoveries that let chemists drive reactions towards it.
• Kenso Soai of the Tokyo University of Science forged the final link in the chain of ideas behind the prize.
• A Nobel Committee member singled out the Soai reaction as an especially striking experiment in organic chemistry.
• The discoveries are important for chemists designing reactions used in pharmaceutical manufacturing, paving the way for more precise and safer drugs.
• The 12 million Swedish kronor prize is shared equally between the two laureates.
• The chemistry prize has now been awarded 118 times since the first one in 1901.