Omar Yaghi, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He shares the honor with Richard Robson from the University of Melbourne and Susumu Kitagawa from Kyoto University. The Nobel committee recognized their work for creating “molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow. These constructions, metal-organic frameworks, can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyze chemical reactions.”
Yaghi is now the 28th UC Berkeley faculty member to receive a Nobel Prize and the fifth recipient from the university in five years. He learned about his win while traveling to a conference in Brussels. “As I landed, I saw there was nothing on my phone, and then I got a call,” he said. After speaking with a member of the Nobel committee, he described receiving the prize as “an astonishment” and added, “is a feeling you don’t have often.”
In the 1990s, Yaghi’s research focused on combining metals with organic molecules to create hybrid compounds with highly porous crystal structures. These compounds, called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), are stable and can be customized using different metals and organic linkers for specific applications such as gas storage or separation.
Over 100,000 MOF structures have been synthesized so far. Some MOFs developed by Yaghi are capable of capturing carbon dioxide from industrial emissions or storing methane for natural gas vehicles. Others have potential for hydrogen storage.
In recent years, Yaghi has also created MOFs that absorb water directly from air at low humidity levels typical of deserts. His lab spun off a company that markets compact water harvesters capable of extracting up to five liters of water per day in arid environments. In 2020, he founded Atoco to deploy MOFs for climate change mitigation and expanding access to drinking water.
Beyond MOFs, Yaghi pioneered covalent organic frameworks (COFs) and zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), both offering additional possibilities for gas storage and clean water production. COFs can also store charged ions for use in supercapacitors.
Yaghi holds several roles at UC Berkeley: he is the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair in the College of Chemistry; co-director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute; and has appointments in Computing, Data Science and Society as well as Materials Science and Engineering.
He describes his field as “reticular chemistry,” defined as “stitching molecular building blocks into crystalline, extended structures by strong bonds.” His early career included faculty positions at Arizona State University, University of Michigan, UCLA, before joining UC Berkeley in 2012.
MOFs offer significant internal surface area—up to 10,000 square meters per gram—enabling them to adsorb large volumes of gas. Their structure can be tailored for specific uses such as catalysis or selective gas adsorption.
Initially met with skepticism within the scientific community, MOFs have since become an active area of research worldwide. Numerous companies are investigating MOF applications ranging from safer chemical storage to improved catalysts. Yaghi is among the most cited chemists globally.
In 2022, he became scientific director of UC Berkeley’s Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet. The institute uses artificial intelligence to develop new MOF and COF materials aimed at addressing climate change.
Yaghi also founded the Berkeley Global Science Institute to promote research opportunities globally through centers established in multiple countries including Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Argentina, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Anne Baranger, interim dean of the College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley said: “Professor Yaghi doesn’t end with groundbreaking science of both a basic and practical nature, but he combines this with the desire to mentor and outreach also on a global scale. He’s established an entire institute in order to really bring up the best and the brightest and provide opportunities across the entire world.”
Born in Amman, Jordan in 1965 to Palestinian refugee parents, Yaghi moved alone to Troy, New York at age 15 to pursue education. He earned his B.S. from SUNY Albany before completing a Ph.D. at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons commented: “Omar’s story is the quintessential American story… leading up to the extraordinary recognition conferred by this Nobel Prize was boatloads of hard work, dedication, and creativity… These are the things Nobel prizes are made of. And these are the very attributes that define UC Berkeley and make this university one of society’s most valuable assets.”
UC President James B. Milliken added: “This award is a testament to Professor Yaghi’s determination and world-leading expertise… demonstrating once again the power of research to improve health, save lives, drive the innovation economy, and much more.”
Yaghi’s honors include election to several national academies worldwide as well as awards such as the Von Hippel Award (2025), Tang Prize (2024), VinFuture Prize (2021), Wolf Prize (2018), King Faisal International Prize (2015) among others.
He is an American citizen residing in Berkeley.
