French Holocaust survivor wins Nobel Prize in chemistry
Henri Kagan was awarded the Nobel Prize for his joint effort to selectively create mirror image versions of molecules
Assessment
A 94 year old French chemist who survived the Holocaust has received chemistry's highest honor. Henri Kagan's work on asymmetric synthesis lets scientists produce specific mirror image molecules, which matters enormously for pharmaceutical safety. Left and right handed versions of the same molecule can have radically different effects in the body. The Nobel committee recognized the practical impact of making the correct version reliably.