• Childhood challenges lead Palestinian chemist to solution for water shortage through studies in metal–organic frameworks

ISTANBUL

Omar M. Yaghi, the Palestinian chemist who won the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry, has revolutionized materials science and developed innovative methods to harvest water from the air, offering tangible solutions to the global water crisis.

Yaghi was born in Amman, Jordan, in 1965 as the sixth child of a Palestinian family. His family migrated to Jordan in 1948 following the Arab-Israeli war.

“I grew up in a refugee family. I walked three miles every day to school, back and forth. I had hardship,” Yaghi noted about his childhood years, in an online video.

He had to share a room with nine of his siblings and their livestock in a house with no electricity. Some days, he had to wake up at dawn to open the valve to get water that was accessible only a couple of hours weekly.

“You had to think of every drop of water back then, because it was really precious,” he said.

Years later, Yaghi would find a remedy for water shortage through his studies in metal–organic frameworks.

His passion for chemistry started when he was 10. He discovered molecular models at his school library one day on a lunch break when the facility was supposed to be closed. He described that day as “a secret love meeting.”

Yaghi’s father has succeeded in sending him to the US to continue his education with his eldest brother, Khalid. Yaghi was only 15 years old when he stepped onto New York’s streets for the first time with very poor English.

In 10 years, Yaghi received his B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990.

He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University from 1990 - 1992, and as an assistant professor at Arizona State University until 1998.

He continued his academic career at the University of Michigan from 1999 to 2006 as a professor of chemistry, then moved to the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2012, he joined the University of California, Berkeley, where he is currently teaching.

He is the founding director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute, the co-director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute and the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet, and an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

He has more than 300 publications to his name and has been cited more than 250,000 times, showing his major influence in chemistry.

Solution to global water crisis

Yaghi’s research focuses on designing and building new crystalline materials using inorganic and organic compounds to address challenges like energy storage, water collection and carbon capture.

He established the Atoco Mission to pioneer advanced systems that harvest clean water directly from the atmosphere, even in the driest and most arid regions.

His work offers an innovative solution to global water scarcity and climate challenges, providing sustainable access to fresh water in regions most affected by drought and environmental stress.

In addition to the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Yaghi’s ground-breaking studies have been awarded prestigious awards worldwide, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 2018, the King Faisal International Prize in Science in 2015, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in 2017, the Tang Prize, and the Balzan Prize in 2024.

Yaghi will receive his prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the day of Alfred Nobel’s death.