Chiral (nitrosyl)ruthenium(salen) complexes were found to be efficient catalysts for aerobic oxidative desymmetrization of meso-diols under photoirradiation to give opticallyactive lactols. The scope of the applicability of this reaction ranges widely from acyclic diols to mono-cyclic diols, although fine ligand-tuning of the ruthenium(salen) complexes was required to attain high enantioselectivity