Reuters
source: Reuters
Scientists Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for solving a long-standing riddle of asymmetric “mirror image” molecules, a discovery hugely important for pharmaceutical manufacturing.
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,” Soai said, speaking by phone to the Nobel Prize press conference, adding he had been out grocery shopping when he received the news.
Reuters was unable to reach Kagan, the third-oldest person to be awarded a Nobel Prize, but his daughter, Veronique Le Deunff, said she was “very happy” and that “the creativity and originality of his work have opened up new avenues for research”.
French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated the laureates on X, calling it an immense honour for the country.
“A recognition suited to a lifetime of research,” he said.
In fact, Kagan’s work has long been seen as influential on the field and the then-French research minister complained to the Nobel Foundation in 2001 when Kagan was left out that year. The prize instead went to two American and one Japanese scientist for work in the same field.
