STOCKHOLM, October 7. /TASS/. The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to France’s Henri Kagan and Japan’s Kenso Soai, the Nobel Committee for Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

The scientists have been awarded the prize "for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis."

"Some molecules, such as amino acids, exist as two variants that are each other’s mirror image. However, living organisms only contain one of these mirror images. How chemical asymmetry such as this could have emerged was long a mystery to chemists. Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 for discovering a solution to this puzzle," the committee specified in a press release, adding that the scientists "made chemistry choose a mirror image."

Henri Kagan is an emeritus professor at France’s Universit· Paris-Saclay (formerly Universit· Paris-Sud), and Kenso Soai is an emeritus professor at Tokyo University of Science, Japan.

"Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have provided a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old: how homochirality can emerge spontaneously. The chemical reactions they have developed are spectacular," Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said.

Experts point out that their discoveries have been decisive for chemists who design reactions for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.