Stockholm: 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.
According to Anadolu Agency, 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.
Yaghi recounted his early life, noting, "I grew up in a refugee family. I walked three miles every day to school, back and forth. I had hardship." He shared a room with nine siblings and their livestock in a house without electricity, often waking up at dawn to access water available only a few hours weekly. This scarcity sparked his future focus on water solutions through metal-organic frameworks.
His passion for chemistry began at age 10 when he stumbled upon molecular models in his school library. Yaghi's father managed to send him to the US for further education. At 15, Yaghi arrived in New York with limited English skills. He earned his B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by 1990.
Yaghi's career includes a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, a professorship at Arizona State University, and later roles at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 2012, he has been at the University of California, Berkeley, contributing as the founding director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute and other prestigious roles. With over 300 publications and 250,000 citations, his impact in chemistry is significant.
Yaghi's research targets global challenges like energy storage, water collection, and carbon capture. He established the Atoco Mission to develop systems that harvest water from the atmosphere, addressing water scarcity and climate challenges by providing sustainable access to fresh water in dry regions.
His groundbreaking work has earned him numerous accolades, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the King Faisal International Prize in Science, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, the Tang Prize, and the Balzan Prize in 2024. Yaghi will receive the Nobel Prize on December 10 in Stockholm, commemorating Alfred Nobel's death.