Scientists Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi won the 2025 Nobel chemistry prize for developing a new form of molecular architecture, yielding materials that can help tackle challenges such as climate change and lack of fresh water.
The three laureates worked to create molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow and that can be utilized to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide or store toxic gases.
The academy said some of these materials had a remarkably large surface area — a porous material roughly the same amount as a small sugar cube could contain as much surface area as a large football pitch.
“A small amount of such material can be almost like Hermione’s handbag in Harry Potter. It can store huge amounts of gas in a tiny volume,” Olof Ramstrom, member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry said.
A small amount of such material can be almost like Hermione’s handbag in Harry Potter. It can store huge amounts of gas in a tiny volume.– Olof Ramstrom, Nobel committee member
Their breakthroughs grew over a period of several years, the commitee said, beginning with Robson in 1989 and including the contributions of Kitagawa and Yaghi between 1992 and 2003.
Kitagawa, 74, is a professor at Kyoto University in Japan, the 88-year-old Robson a professor at the University of Melbourne and the 60-year-old Yaghi, born in Jordan, is a professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
Kitagawa told the Nobel press conference that he was deeply honoured by the award.
“My dream is to capture air and separate air to — for instance, in CO2 [carbon dioxide] or oxygen or water or something — and convert this to useful materials using renewable energy,” he said.
The Nobel awards, which are also handed out for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, literature and peace, come with a prize amount of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.6 million Cdn).
The prize for literature will be awarded on Thursday, and the Nobel Peace Prize is to be announced on Friday. The economics prize will be announced Oct. 13.
The Nobel Prizes are presented to the laureates in a ceremony on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel’s death.
