Yaghi was nominated for 3 Nobel Prized after earning his PhD at the University of Illinois UC Berkeley
Nobel-Prize Winning Chemist Omar Yaghi and his Invention for Cleaner Air
MARCH 4, 2026
Dr. Omar Yaghi, a chemist and professor at U.C. Berkeley, was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his innovation of porous material capable of capturing, storing and transforming gases. Dedicating his career to advancing reticular chemistry, a field he discovered to study metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), Yaghi pioneered new classes of porous material capable of capturing water from thin air.
MOFs are highly porous, crystalline materials composed of metal ions to form multidimensional structures. They are known for having the highest internal surface area of any material, making them useful for gas storage, carbon capture, and water harvesting.
“I find it interesting that MOFs are able to store such large amounts of water. I was curious to see how much water they can actually hold, and was surprised to find that a gram of MOFs can hold enough internal surface area equal to two football fields,” said EBHS junior Ruby Portnoy
“I think it’s cool being able to see how concepts we learn as high school students, like crystal structures, are leading to extremely helpful, real world applications,” said EBHS junior Allison Chen. “In Science Olympiad, I compete in the Materials Science event which covers the properties of materials, like nanomaterials, and Dr. Yaghi’s work gives me inspiration for the feats we can accomplish in the future.”
Yaghi’s lab founded water harvesters, a microwave sized device that could capture 5 liters of water in arid environments, and he also founded the company Atico to employ technology that incorporated MOFs in order to help combat climate change. To that end, MOFs utilize clean energy systems, for example, by providing effective, renewable energy storage for hydrogen fuel.
For EBHS students learning about climate change, chemistry, and sustainability, MOFs demonstrate how classroom concepts contribute to a real world impact. In drought stricken regions like California, the Middle East, and parts of Africa, MOFs offer a practical solution by harvesting water and capturing carbon emissions, technologies that could support clean energy systems and provide water to communities in shortages. Research like Yaghi’s illustrates how classroom concepts can address global challenges like resource accessibility.
