---
name: "Kenso Soai"
type: Person
description: "Kenso Soai is a Japanese chemist, born in Hiroshima in 1950. He earned his doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1979 and is Professor Emeritus at the Tokyo University of Science. The Soai reaction, presented in its complete form in 2003, turns a tiny excess of one mirror-image form of a molecule into an almost pure product. He shares the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Henri Kagan."
jobTitle: "Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University of Science"
sameAs:
  - https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2026/soai/facts/
canonical: https://thequantumoflight.com/people/kenso-soai
publication: The Quantum of Light
---

# Kenso Soai

Kenso Soai is a Japanese chemist, born in Hiroshima in 1950. He earned his doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1979 and is Professor Emeritus at the Tokyo University of Science. The Soai reaction, presented in its complete form in 2003, turns a tiny excess of one mirror-image form of a molecule into an almost pure product. He shares the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Henri Kagan.

**Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University of Science**

## Coverage

- [undefined](/article/kenso-soai-spent-eight-more-years-on-one-reaction-the-patience-behind-a-nobel-prize) - Literary Culture, 2026-11-08
- [undefined](/article/henri-kagan-questioned-what-every-chemist-assumed-and-won-the-nobel-prize-at-95) - Literary Culture, 2026-11-08