Palestinian refugee, Omar Yaghi, wins 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry

Dr. Omar M. Yaghi, a Palestinian scientist who grew up in a refugee camp, has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

He was recognized for his pioneering work on Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs), a breakthrough molecular architecture with the potential to fight climate change and provide clean water in arid regions.

His research has had an immense global impact, with over 300 scientific papers published, cited more than 250,000 times, and an H-index of 190 — a reflection of his extraordinary influence in modern chemistry.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognized Dr. Yaghi alongside Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University, Japan, and Richard Robson of the University of Melbourne, Australia, for their transformative contributions to MOF research. Dr. Yaghi is affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.

The Palestinian descent professor is regarded as the pioneer of “Reticular Chemistry,” a new branch of chemistry that links molecular building blocks into extended structures through strong bonds.

Born in 1965 to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Yaghi grew up in a one-room home shared with the family’s livestock. His fascination with chemistry began at the age of 10, when he discovered a book on molecules in a local library.

“The deeper you dig, the more beautifully you find things are constructed,” he told the Nobel Prize website, reflecting on a lifelong passion that has now earned him global recognition.

Yaghi, who moved to the US at 15, now leads several prestigious scientific institutions, including Berkeley Global Science Institute, which aims to build research centers in developing countries and empower young scientists.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, the Palestinian scientist has earned numerous international honors, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2018), King Faisal International Prize in Science (2015), Solvay Prize (2024), Tang Prize (2024), and Balzan Prize (2024).

Global scientific innovators honored with prestigious Mustafa Prize

Tehran has hosted the sixth edition of the Mustafa Prize.

In a post on X, Palestinian journalist Mohammed Shehada drew attention to the "dire conditions" in which Yaghi grew up, noting that "hundreds" of Gaza’s scholars have been killed in Israel’s genocide in the besieged territory.

Hundreds of Palestinian scholars are among nearly 67,200 Palestinians Israel has killed in its genocidal war in Gaza.

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