By Admin 
Omar Yagi, who grew up in a one-room house in Amman city of Jordan, is today among the most respected names in the world of chemistry. On October 8, 2025, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Omar Yagi. He shared this honor with Susumu Kitagawa of Japan and Richard Robson of Australia. These three scientists received this award for the development of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), which are known to revolutionize technologies like storing gas, climate control and extracting water from desert air.
Heiner Linke, President of the Royal Swedish Academy, said in a press conference that the work of Yagi and his colleagues is the beginning of a new era of science. He said that these scientists have created such materials which have huge hollow spaces inside them, like rooms in a hotel, in which molecules come and go like guests. He also said that this substance is like a magical bag, which can store a huge amount of gas in a very small space. These structures are being used today in areas like carbon dioxide capture, hydrogen storage and extracting water from the air.
When childhood’s thirst gave direction to science
Omar Yagi himself had said that in his childhood he spent hours standing in queues for water. When the water ran out, they had to find a new source. He told, “When I created a substance that extracts water from air, it was an answer to my childhood thirst.” Omar M. Yaghi was born in 1965 in Amman, Jordan, to a Palestinian refugee family. The family was of very ordinary standard. He had only a one room house. There were some animals and eight children. His father was a butcher. Despite financial difficulties, his father told Umar Yagi that he had to go out and study so that the future of our next generation could change.”
In this way, at the age of 15, he went to Troy (New York), America. There he studied at Hudson Valley Community College and then SUNY Albany. He spent time working in a grocery store, cleaning floors, and working as a lab assistant. He says that I liked the laboratory, not the classroom, where I could make things.”
From laboratory to Nobel platform
After completing his graduation in 1985, he received his PhD from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) in 1990. He then became a National Science Foundation Fellow at Harvard University and then worked as a professor at Arizona State, Michigan, and UCLA. In 2012 he joined the University of California, Berkeley, where he held senior responsibilities at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute. He founded the Berkeley Global Science Institute, which connects students from developing countries with the global scientific community. More than 300 of his research papers have been published and his works have been cited more than 2.5 lakh times, which is an extraordinary achievement for any scientist.
Arab pride and international respect
Saudi Arabia granted citizenship to Omar M. Yaghi in 2021 and he became the first Saudi citizen to receive the Nobel Prize. In 2024, he was also honored with the Great Arab Minds Award of the United Arab Emirates. Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said, “We congratulate not only Professor Omar Yagi, but the entire Arab world.” There is limitless talent among our youth and Yagi is the brightest example of this. Arab media have called him the star of Arab science and the Ibn Sina of the modern era.
Also read: Nobel Prize 2025: Nobel Prize for Chemistry announced, know which scientists of which countries got the world’s most respected award?