The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar Yaghi for their pioneering work in developing metal-organic frameworks, as announced by the award-giving body in Stockholm. The Royal Academy of Science highlighted that the trio’s molecular constructions have created large spaces allowing the flow of gases and chemicals.
These metal-organic frameworks have versatile applications, such as extracting water from desert air, capturing carbon dioxide, storing hazardous gases, and catalyzing chemical reactions, according to the committee’s statement. The groundbreaking research spanned several years, commencing with Robson’s work in 1989 and incorporating the contributions of Kitagawa and Yaghi from 1992 to 2003.
Kitagawa, aged 74, is a professor at Kyoto University in Japan, while Robson, 88, holds a professorship at the University of Melbourne, and Yaghi, aged 60 and originally from Jordan, is a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry comes with a monetary award of 11 million Swedish crowns (equivalent to $1.6 million Cdn).
The Nobel Prize for Literature is scheduled to be announced on Thursday, followed by the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics prize winner will be revealed on October 13. The Nobel laureates will receive their awards on December 10, commemorating the death anniversary of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.