World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Chemistry

D-Index
70
Citations
18222
World Ranking
5827
National Ranking
361

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2005 - Chirality Medal, Società Chimica Italiana Japan

Overview

Kenso Soai is affiliated with the Tokyo University of Science in Japan. Their research focuses primarily on materials science, with a strong emphasis on materials chemistry. The work spans several interconnected subfields including astronomy and astrophysics, molecular biology, cellular and molecular neuroscience, and spectroscopy.

The scientist's research topics cover a range of themes such as crystallization and solubility studies, the origins and evolution of life, X-ray diffraction in crystallography, photoreceptor and optogenetics research, molecular spectroscopy and chirality, crystallography and molecular interactions, and protein structure and dynamics. These themes indicate a multidisciplinary approach combining physical chemistry, biology, and materials characterization techniques.

Recent publications by Kenso Soai include the following papers:

  • "The Soai reaction and its implications with the life's characteristic features of self-replication and homochirality", 2022, Tetrahedron
  • "Asymmetric Autocatalysis as a Link Between Crystal Chirality and Highly Enantioenriched Organic Compounds", 2021, Israel Journal of Chemistry
  • "Asymmetric Autocatalysis as an Efficient Link Between the Origin of Homochirality and Highly Enantioenriched Compounds", 2022, Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres

In addition, closely related coauthored works in overlapping research fields appear in venues such as Chemical Communications, with titles addressing asymmetric autocatalysis and circular dichroism spectroscopy.

Frequent collaborators contributing to research alongside Kenso Soai include Arimasa Matsumoto, Tsuneomi Kawasaki, Yoshiyasu Kaimori, Natsuki Hara, and Daisuke Tateishi. These coauthors have engaged in studies notable for their intersections between catalysis, chirality, and crystallographic analysis.

The primary publication venues featuring Soai's work are:

  • The Cambridge Structural Database
  • Tetrahedron
  • Chemical Communications
  • Israel Journal of Chemistry
  • Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres

This reflects a research output distributed across chemical, crystallographic, and origin-of-life focused scientific journals.

Kenso Soai's contributions have been recognized through awards such as the Chirality Medal awarded by Società Chimica Italiana in 2005, a distinction highlighting work connected with stereochemistry and chirality.

Best Publications

  • Enantioselective addition of organozinc reagents to aldehydes

    Kenso Soai;Seiji Niwa

  • Asymmetric autocatalysis and amplification of enantiomeric excess of a chiral molecule

    Kenso Soai;Takanori Shibata;Hiroshi Morioka;Kaori Choji

  • Catalytic asymmetric induction. Highly enantioselective addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes using chiral pyrrolidinylmethanols and their metal salts

    Kenso Soai;Atsuhiro Ookawa;Tatsuya Kaba;Kazuo Ogawa

  • d- and l-Quartz-Promoted Highly Enantioselective Synthesis of a Chiral Organic Compound

    Kenso Soai;Shunji Osanai;Kousuke Kadowaki;Shigeru Yonekubo

  • Enantioselective Automultiplication of Chiral Molecules by Asymmetric Autocatalysis

    Kenso Soai;Takanori Shibata;Itaru Sato

  • Asymmetric synthesis of pyrimidyl alkanol without adding chiral substances by the addition of diisopropylzinc to pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde in conjunction with asymmetric autocatalysis

    Kenso Soai;Itaru Sato;Takanori Shibata;Soichiro Komiya

  • Enantioface-differentiating (asymmetric) addition of alkyllithium and dialkylmagnesium to aldehydes by using (2S,2'S)-2-hydroxymethyl-1-[(1-alkylpyrrolidin-2-yl)methyl]pyrrolidines as chiral ligands

    Teruaki Mukaiyama;Kenso Soai;Toshio Sato;Hisashi Shimizu

  • Chiral N,N-dialkylnorephedrines as catalysts of the highly enantioselective addition of dialkylzincs to aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes. The asymmetric synthesis of secondary aliphatic and aromatic alcohols of high optical purity

    Kenso Soai;Shuji Yokoyama;Tomoiki Hayasaka

  • Enantioselective Synthesis of Near Enantiopure Compound by Asymmetric Autocatalysis Triggered by Asymmetric Photolysis with Circularly Polarized Light

    Tsuneomi Kawasaki;Mirai Sato;Saori Ishiguro;Takahiro Saito

  • Asymmetric Induction by Helical Hydrocarbons: [6]‐ and [5]Helicenes

    Itaru Sato;Ryutaro Yamashima;Kousuke Kadowaki;Jun Yamamoto

  • Amplification of a Slight Enantiomeric Imbalance in Molecules Based on Asymmetric Autocatalysis: The First Correlation between High Enantiomeric Enrichment in a Chiral Molecule and Circularly Polarized Light

    Takanori Shibata;Jun Yamamoto;Naoko Matsumoto;Shigeru Yonekubo

  • Amplification of Chirality from Extremely Low to Greater than 99.5 % ee by Asymmetric Autocatalysis

    Itaru Sato;Hiroki Urabe;Saori Ishiguro;Takanori Shibata

  • Highly Enantioselective Catalytic Asymmetric Automultiplication of Chiral Pyrimidyl Alcohol

    Takanori Shibata;Hiroshi Morioka;Tadakatsu Hayase;Kaori Choji

  • The Michael Reaction of Silyl Enol Ethers with α,β-Unsaturated Eetones and Acetals in the Presence of Titanium Tetraalkoxide and Titanium Tetrachloride

    Koichi Narasaka;Kenso Soai;Yukiko Aikawa;Teruaki Mukaiyama

  • Asymmetric autocatalysis triggered by carbon isotope (13C/12C) chirality.

    Tsuneomi Kawasaki;Yukari Matsumura;Takashi Tsutsumi;Kenta Suzuki

  • Practically Perfect Asymmetric Autocatalysis with (2-Alkynyl-5-pyrimidyl)alkanols.

    Takanori Shibata;Shigeru Yonekubo;Kenso Soai

  • Mixed solvents containing methanol as useful reaction media for unique chemoselective reductions within lithium borohydride

    Kenso Soai;Atsuhiro Ookawa

  • Asymmetric Synthesis of an Organic Compound with High Enantiomeric Excess Induced by Inorganic Ionic Sodium Chlorate

    Itaru Sato;Kousuke Kadowaki;Kenso Soai

  • Asymmetric autocatalysis of pyrimidyl alkanol and its application to the study on the origin of homochirality.

    Kenso Soai;Tsuneomi Kawasaki;Arimasa Matsumoto

  • Relationship between the time, yield, and enantiomeric excess of asymmetric autocatalysis of chiral 2-alkynyl-5-pyrimidyl alkanol with amplification of enantiomeric excess

    Itaru Sato;Daisuke Omiya;Hiroyoshi Igarashi;Keiichi Kato

Frequent Co-Authors

Takanori Shibata
Takanori Shibata Waseda University
Teruaki Mukaiyama
Teruaki Mukaiyama Kitasato University
Keisuke Suzuki
Keisuke Suzuki University of Sussex
Yasuo Wakatsuki
Yasuo Wakatsuki Bridgestone (Japan)
Hiroyuki Isobe
Hiroyuki Isobe University of Tokyo
Christopher J. Welch
Christopher J. Welch Indiana Consortium for Analytical Science & Engineering
Meir Lahav
Meir Lahav Weizmann Institute of Science
Jong Hwa Jung
Jong Hwa Jung Gyeongsang National University
Andrew L. Rohl
Andrew L. Rohl Curtin University
Chunhua Hu
Chunhua Hu New York University

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