Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for Homochirality Research

▲ This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Henri Kagan (95), a professor at Paris-Sud University in France, and Kenso Soai (76), a professor at Tokyo University of Science in Japan.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on October 7 (local time) that they were selected as laureates for their discoveries of nonlinear effects and asymmetric autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.

Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, praised the two laureates, stating that they "provided the answer to a chemical mystery over a century old: how homochirality (the phenomenon where molecules constituting living organisms exhibit a single directional handedness) can spontaneously emerge."

With this win, Japan has produced a Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate for the second consecutive year, following last year.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates receive 12 million Swedish krona (approximately 1.61 billion won), which is shared when there are multiple winners.

(Photo: Provided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Nobel Committee, Yonhap News)

※