World

Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai win Nobel Prize in chemistry

By Kostya Menenkov and Stefania Dazio

Oct 7, 2026

Portraits of Nobel winners Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai are shown — The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded a Nobel Prize to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai. -AP

Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.

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Kagan is affiliated with Universite Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, and Soai, 95, with the Tokyo University of Science.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winner in Stockholm on Wednesday.

In 2025, three scientists won the chemistry Nobel for their development of new molecular structures that can trap vast quantities of gas inside, laying the groundwork to potentially suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or harvest moisture from desert environments.

The 2026 prizes began with the Nobel for medicine, awarded on Monday to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works.

The physics award on Tuesday recognised a scientist's efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos.

The literature prize is set to be awarded on Thursday.

After Friday's peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday.

The prize money is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $A1.7 million), whether for an individual, a small group of laureates or an organisation.