“A small amount of such material can be almost like Hermione’s handbag in Harry Potter.
It can store huge amounts of gas in a tiny volume,” Olof Ramstrom, member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said.
Kitagawa told the Nobel press conference that he was deeply honoured by the award.
THIRD 2025 NOBEL PRIZE, LITERATURE NEXT ON THURSDAY The Chemistry Nobel was the third prize announced in this year’s crop of awards, in keeping with tradition, following those for medicine and physics announced earlier this week.
Last year’s chemistry award went to U.S. scientists David Baker and John Jumper and Briton Demis Hassabis for work on decoding the structure of proteins and creating new ones, yielding advances in areas such as drug development.
STOCKHOLM, Oct. 8 (Reuters) – Researchers Richard Robson, Omar Yaghi, and Susumu Kitagawa were awarded the 2025 Nobel chemistry prize for creating a novel type of molecular architecture that will produce materials that can address issues like freshwater scarcity and climate change.
The three laureates collaborated to develop metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, which are molecular structures with large gaps that allow gases and other chemicals to pass through. These structures can be used to store harmful gases, capture carbon dioxide, or extract water from desert air.
A porous material about the size of a sugar cube could have as much surface area as a football field, according to the award committee, which described the “unheard of properties” of these materials.
A tiny bit of this stuff can resemble Hermione’s Harry Potter handbag. Huge volumes of gas can be stored in it,” Olof Ramstrom, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, stated.
DEALING WITH “FOREVER CHEMICALS” IS ONE USE FOR IT.
The winners of the more than 100-year-old prize, which is given out by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, split 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million) and the notoriety that comes with taking home what is arguably the most prestigious science award in the world.
At the Nobel press conference, Kitagawa expressed his profound gratitude for the honor.
“My goal is to use renewable energy to capture air, separate it into different forms, like CO2, oxygen, water, or something else, and then turn that into useful materials,” he stated.
One area of promise is carbon capture in the production of cement, which is one of the dirtiest industrial processes and contributes 7% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. There are already some cement plants that use MOFs to absorb it before releasing it into the atmosphere.
Yaghi told a press conference, “I don’t see that as hype, that is an implementation of science, basic science, all the way to benefiting society.”.
According to the Academy, chemists have created tens of thousands of distinct MOFs since the discoveries, some of which “may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges.” Other applications include eliminating pharmaceutical traces from the environment and removing hazardous PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” from water.
“The world’s most equalizing force is science.”.
Robson is a professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia, Yaghi is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States, and Kitagawa is a professor at Kyoto University in Japan.
Robson was born in Britain but relocated to Australia in his late 20s, Kitagawa is Japanese, and Yaghi is Jordanian-American.
Yaghi was born to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, where they lived in a one-room house with their cattle.
In an interview posted on the Nobel website, he stated, “It’s quite a journey and science allows you to do it,” adding that his parents were illiterate. He declared, “Science is the greatest equalizing force in the world.”.
When he discovered a book on molecules in the library at the age of ten, Yaghi, who expressed his surprise and joy at receiving the award, began a lifelong passion for chemistry.
“The more you look, the more exquisitely you discover things are built,” he said on the Nobel website.
Robson said he celebrated in private at his house outside of Melbourne after receiving the call from Stockholm thirty minutes prior to the formal announcement.
He recently abstained from alcohol for health reasons, he told Reuters, adding, “I made fish for dinner with my wife, and then I did the washing up afterwards.”.
He admitted, “I had a glass of very cheap wine, so I broke that rule.”.
Next Thursday is the third Nobel Prize in 2025, Literature.
In keeping with tradition, the Chemistry Nobel was the third prize announced in this year’s crop of awards, after the physics and medicine prizes earlier this week.
Since 1901, with a few breaks primarily brought on by world wars, the prizes for accomplishments in science, literature, and peace have been given out in accordance with the will of Swedish inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.
Nobel was a chemist himself, and his advances in that field contributed to the fortune he accumulated in the 19th century as a result of his invention of dynamite.
Many significant discoveries, including nuclear fission, DNA sequencing methods, and yeast, have been honored by the Chemistry Awards, despite occasionally being eclipsed by more well-known laureates in the domains of physics, literature, and peace. U received the chemistry award last year. S. For their efforts in deciphering protein structures and developing new ones, scientists David Baker and John Jumper as well as Briton Demis Hassabis have made strides in fields like drug development.
(9.3436 Swedish crowns) = $1.
Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York, Niklas Pollard, Simon Johnson, Marie Mannes, and Johan Ahlander in Stockholm; supplementary reporting by Terje Solsvik in Oslo, Greta Rosen Fondahn in Stockholm, and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; editing by Alex Richardson.
The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles serve as our benchmark. initiates a new tab.
news correspondent for Swedish companies based in Stockholm who focuses on topics related to Swedish retail and industrial businesses, as well as other industries. She used to cover the general Nordic stock market from Gdansk, covering a variety of topics such as supply chain issues, MandAs, and businesses leaving Russia. Marie, who holds degrees in both journalism and international relations, is interested in identifying stories that have unreported components and influence the market.
