Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi win 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Guwahati: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Wednesday announced that the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M.
Yaghi for their groundbreaking work on the development of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) — molecular structures capable of trapping, storing, and filtering gases with remarkable efficiency.
The Academy said the trio were honoured “for the development of metal–organic frameworks,” a revolutionary class of materials featuring vast internal spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow. MOFs have wide-ranging applications, from capturing carbon dioxide and toxic gases to harvesting water from desert air and catalysing chemical reactions.
The foundation of this innovation dates back to 1989, when Richard Robson experimented with combining positively charged copper ions and a four-armed molecule designed to attract those ions. Although the structure initially proved unstable, it paved the way for future breakthroughs.
Building on this concept, Susumu Kitagawa demonstrated that gases could move in and out of these molecular frameworks and predicted that MOFs could be made flexible. Omar M. Yaghi later developed an exceptionally stable MOF and introduced a rational design approach, allowing scientists to modify the structures and tailor their properties for specific uses.
Their discoveries have since transformed materials science, offering promising solutions to some of the planet’s most pressing environmental and industrial challenges.
Last year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2024) was shared by David Baker for computational protein design and Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for their work on protein structure prediction.
The 2025 Nobel announcements began on October 6 with the Physiology or Medicine Prize, awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for identifying the immune system’s regulatory T cells.
The Physics Prize, announced on October 7, went to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martini for creating devices demonstrating quantum tunnelling.
The Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences Prizes will be announced on October 9, 10, and 13 respectively.
Each Nobel Prize includes a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately ?1.03 crore) and will be presented on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
Established in accordance with the will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Prizes honour those who “have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”