Nobel Prize in Chemistry for combating climate change
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded on Wednesday to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi for the development of so-called metal-organic frameworks.
Photo: Nobel Prize
According to the Nobel Committee, this year's prize was awarded for "creating new rules for chemistry."
The work of the three scientists can be used to tackle some of the planet's biggest problems, including capturing carbon dioxide—which could help combat climate change—or reducing plastic pollution through chemistry.
The three laureates worked on creating molecular structures with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow.
In practice, these structures can be used, for example, to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, or store toxic gases.
"With the development of metal-organic frameworks, the laureates have offered chemists new opportunities to solve some of the challenges we face," the institution responsible for the prize said in a statement.
Kitagawa is a professor at Kyoto University in Japan. Robson is a professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Yaghi is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.
