Photographs of this year's laureates, Professor Henri Kagan of France (left) and Professor Kenso Soai of Japan, are displayed on a screen during the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on the 7th (local time). / AFP, Yonhap

Professor Henri Kagan (96) of Paris-Sud University in France and Professor Kenso Soai (76) of the Tokyo University of Science in Japan have been named the winners of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Announcing the two scholars as this year's laureates on the 7th (local time), the Nobel Committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences stated that they were recognized "for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis."

French-born organic chemist Professor Kagan is known as a pioneer in the field of asymmetric catalysis. He discovered and theorized the "non-linear effect," demonstrating that minute asymmetries can be amplified.

A graduate of the Sorbonne in Paris, he earned his doctorate from the Collège de France and served on the faculty at Paris-Sud University in Orsay for approximately 40 years before becoming professor emeritus, acting as a mentor to fellow chemists.

Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Professor Soai graduated from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo, where he also obtained his master's and doctoral degrees. After working as a fellow at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, he took up a professorship at the Tokyo University of Science.

He is widely renowned for research that realized the asymmetric amplification of molecules via autocatalysis into an actual "autocatalytic reaction." He discovered the "Soai reaction," which selectively generates one molecular handedness by using autocatalytic processes to amplify subtle asymmetries existing in enantiomers.

                                                                                                             Kim Hyun-min