Rich Mom Magazine logoRich Mom Magazine

Kenso Soai

Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University of Science

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.

Featured In(1)

Glass laboratory flasks and beakers against a dark background.Career & Ambition

Kenso Soai Spent Eight More Years on One Reaction: The Patience Behind a Nobel Prize

A chemist from Hiroshima turned a two per cent head start into a reaction that only life itself had managed before. What the 2026 Nobel laureate teaches you about patience and small advantages.

·3 min read