Jordanian Omar Yaghi among three winners of Chemistry Nobel Prize

• Jordanian-American Omar M. Yaghi, Japanese scientist Susumu Kitagawa, and UK-born Richard Robson win 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
• The structures can harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases, and catalyze chemical reactions, opening new possibilities for custom-made materials.

Jordanian-American Omar M. Yaghi, Japanese scientist Susumu Kitagawa, and UK-born Richard Robson have won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), the Nobel Committee announced Wednesday.

"These constructions, metal–organic frameworks, can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyse chemical reactions," the jury said.

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For years, commentators have pointed to Yaghi as a leading candidate for the prize, frequently mentioning Kitagawa’s name alongside his.

Yaghi is a university professor holding the James and Neeltje Tretter Endowed Chair in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

"Metal–organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions," Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said in a statement.

Last year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Americans David Baker and John Jumper, along with Briton Demis Hassabis, for using computing and artificial intelligence to decipher the structures of proteins, the fundamental building blocks of life.