Jordanian King Abdullah praised the Jordanian scientist Omar Yaghi for winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded on Wednesday to three scientists: Yaghi, Japanese Susumu Kitagawa, and British Richard Robson.

King Abdullah wrote on X platform, “This achievement is a new pride added to the honorable record of Jordanians in various fields worldwide, proving that Jordanians can make a difference wherever they are.”

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded on Wednesday to three scientists who developed new molecular structures capable of capturing gases, including Jordanian Omar Yaghi, who has been considered a serious candidate for this prize for years.

The committee stated, “These metal-organic frameworks can be used to collect water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases, or catalyze chemical reactions.”

Heiner Linke, chairman of the Nobel Chemistry Committee, said in a statement, “These metal-organic frameworks (also known as MOFs) have enormous potential, providing possibilities previously unimaginable for designing materials with new functions.”

Yaghi’s Family

Upon the announcement of the award, Yaghi expressed his “astonishment, joy, and emotion,” saying in a statement to the Nobel Foundation, “I grew up in a very humble family; we were about ten people in a small hall, sharing it with the livestock we raised.”

At age fifteen, his parents sent him to the United States to continue his studies. He said, “Science is the greatest force that achieves equality in the world.”

The Nobel Committee provided concrete examples derived from this research.

For example, “Yaghi’s research team extracted water from the air of the Arizona desert. During the night, the material equipped with metal-organic framework properties captured water vapor from the air. At dawn, when the sun heated the material, they were able to collect water,” according to the committee.

The work of these chemists opened the door to creating tens of thousands of new and different molecular networks by other scientists.