October 8, 2025

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 has a dazzling trio of winners: Susumu Kitagawa from Japan, Richard Robson from the UK, and Omar M. Yaghi from the USA. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday, October 8, that these scientists won the prize “for the development of metal–organic frameworks.” What makes these metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) so exciting? Imagine tiny, magical molecular buildings with big empty spaces inside. These spaces allow gases and chemicals to move through, making MOFs super useful. They can soak water from desert air, catch dangerous carbon dioxide, store toxic gases, and even help speed up chemical reactions. The story started in 1989 when Richard Robson combined copper ions (positively charged atoms) with a special four-armed molecule. This was a new way of using atoms together. But there was a hiccup — Robson’s creation was not stable and fell apart easily. Enter Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi! Kitagawa proved that gases could flow smoothly in and out of these molecular frameworks and predicted they could be bendy and flexible. Yaghi took it further by building a super-sturdy MOF and showed it could be designed with special new features! Together, they built a strong and useful foundation for MOFs. This year’s prize adds to the excitement of Nobel announcements. Earlier, David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper shared the 2024 Chemistry prize for amazing work on proteins. The 2025 Nobel Medicine Prize went to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for discovering immune system “security guards” called regulatory T cells. The Physics Nobel went to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martini for their work on quantum tunneling. The Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences Nobel Prizes will be announced soon on October 9, 10, and 13. Each Nobel Prize winner receives 11 million Swedish kronor—around ₹1.03 crore! The grand awards ceremony will be on December 10. These prizes were started by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor who wanted to reward those who bring the greatest good to humankind. So, three brilliant minds have now taken us a giant leap with their stunning metal-organic frameworks!

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Tags: Nobel prize 2025, Chemistry, Metal-organic frameworks, Susumu kitagawa, Richard robson, Omar m. yaghi,