The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal–organic frameworks.”
Richard Robson
Richard Robson, born on June 4, 1937, in Glusburn, West Yorkshire, England, is a British-Australian chemist. A graduate of Oxford University, where he earned his BA in 1959 and DPhil in 1962, Robson went on to conduct postdoctoral research at Caltech and Stanford before joining the University of Melbourne in 1966.
Over the decades, he became a leading figure in inorganic chemistry and crystal engineering, laying the conceptual foundations for MOFs—highly porous materials created by linking metal ions with organic ligands. His 1989 paper describing “infinite polymeric frameworks” was especially influential in shaping the field.
In 1989, chemistry laureate Richard Robson tested utilising the inherent properties of atoms in a new way. He combined positively charged copper ions with a four-armed molecule; this had a chemical group that was attracted to copper ions at the end of each arm. When they were combined, they bonded to form a well-ordered, spacious crystal. It was like a diamond filled with innumerable cavities.
Robson’s research has had far-reaching implications, as MOFs are now used for gas storage and separation, carbon dioxide capture, catalysis, and even water harvesting from air. His work has not only transformed material science but also opened pathways for cleaner energy and environmental applications. In recognition of his contributions, Robson has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Science and has received numerous chemistry awards, including the Burrows Award from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. His Nobel Prize win underscores his lifelong commitment to advancing the chemistry of complex materials and his role as one of the key architects of modern coordination chemistry.
Omar M. Yaghi
Omar M. Yaghi (born February 9, 1965) is a Jordanian-American chemist. He holds the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, is university professor (UC Berkeley), and is affiliated with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Yaghi’s major scientific contributions are in reticular chemistry, a field he named, which involves stitching molecular building blocks into extended frameworks using strong bonds. He is known for pioneering several classes of ultra-porous materials, including MOFs, covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs). These materials are distinguished by exceptionally high internal surface area and porosity.
His materials have wide and growing applications: capturing and separating gases (like CO₂, hydrogen, methane), harvesting water from desert air, catalysis, converting CO₂ into useful chemicals, ion storage, and energy-related functions. Over his career, he has published 300+ peer-reviewed articles, has h-index well over 170, and is a very highly cited chemist.
In addition to his academic appointments, Yaghi has received many major awards. These include (but are not limited to) the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2018), Balzan Prize (2024), Tang Prize for Sustainable Development (2024), IUPAC-Soong Prize for Sustainable Chemistry (2025), Von Hippel Award (2025), among others.
Susumu Kitagawa
Susumu Kitagawa, born in 1951, is a Japanese chemist renowned for his groundbreaking work in coordination chemistry and the development of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
He obtained his degrees, including a PhD in hydrocarbon chemistry, from Kyoto University, where he later became a professor and co-founded the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), serving as its director.
Kitagawa’s pioneering research focused on porous coordination polymers (PCPs), the precursors to MOFs, and his studies revealed that these materials could exhibit flexibility and responsiveness—properties that allow them to adapt their structure when exposed to gases, pressure, or other environmental stimuli.
His work has had a major impact on materials science, leading to practical applications in gas storage, separation, catalysis, and environmental sustainability. Widely regarded as a leader in modern inorganic chemistry, Kitagawa has received numerous accolades, including the Solvay Prize (2017), the Basolo Medal (2016), and the Fujihara Award, in recognition of his role in shaping the field of functional porous materials.