In a landmark achievement, Saudi-American citizen Omar Yaghi has won Nobel Prize 2025 in Chemistry, along with scientists Susumu Kitagawa and Richard Robson.
The three scientists received the Nobel Prize for developing “metal–organic frameworks” that can be utilized to “harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyze chemical reactions,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday.
Omar Yaghi, a Palestinian born in Jordan, was granted Saudi citizenship in 2021, in recognition of his outstanding scientific contributions to the fields of reticular chemistry and nanomaterials.
The move also aligns with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 to foster an appealing ecosystem to attract distinguished human talent whose skills and expertise drive economic, technical, and scientific development, and boost innovation across the Kingdom, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Yaghi is the head of the Center of Excellence for Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Applications (CENCEA), developed by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and UC Berkley.
Moreover, he serves as advisor to the President of KACST, and a board member of the Research, Development, and Innovation Authority.
Yaghi is one of the most prominent scientists in reticular chemistry, contributing more than 300 scientific papers and receiving more than 250,000 scientific citations.
Owing to his outstanding achievements, Yaghi received several global awards, including the 2015 King Faisal International Prize in Science, the Albert Einstein World Award of Science, the 2018 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, and the 2018 Eni Energy Transition Award.
Furthermore, he won the 2019 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Gregori Aminoff Prize, the 2021 VinFuture Prize for Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Fields, and the Great Arab Minds Award, in addition to numerous medals, prestigious awards and global rankings.
