Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for solving the mystery of nonlinear effects in organic synthesis

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the discovery of nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. It was shared by Henri Kagan from the French University of Paris-Sud and Kenso Soai from the Tokyo University of Science.

Some molecules, such as amino acids, exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other. However, only one of these mirror forms is found in living organisms. The question of how such a chemical asymmetry could arise remained a mystery to chemists for a long time.

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for their discovery of a mechanism to explain this mystery, the Nobel Committee said in a press release.

Laureates of past years

Last year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the development of new organometallic compounds. It was shared by Japanese Susumi Kitagawa, British Richard Robson and Jordanian Omar M. Yaghi.

Scientists have created molecular structures with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can pass. These structures, called metal-organic frameworks, could be used to collect water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyze chemical reactions.

The 2024 laureates are scientists David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper. The prize was awarded for the study of protein structures.

American chemist David Baker managed to create completely new types of proteins. And the British Demis Hassabis and John Jumper developed an artificial intelligence model to solve a half-century-old problem - predicting the complex structure of proteins.

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded for the 118th time. It was not awarded eight times: in 1916-19, 1924, 1933, 1940-42, when the Nobel Committee did not consider the work submitted by the nominees worthy of the award.

Of the 198 people awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, eight are women. Two of them, Marie Curie and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, received awards alone, without co-authors.

Marie Curie also received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, and her daughter Irène shared the award in 1935 with her husband Frédéric Joliot, who at 35 became the youngest laureate in chemistry.

The oldest recipient is John B. Goodenough, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 at the age of 97. This scientist is the oldest Nobel laureate in any discipline. Frederick Sanger and Barry Sharpless have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice.