The Nobel Prize, or rather the Nobel Prizes, is an exciting event in every cycle, especially in the Peace and Literature categories, because politics and culture are always subjects of debate and division, while pure sciences are safer in this regard.

US President Donald Trump believes he deserves this prestigious international peace prize, claiming he ends wars. However, some prize officials say it is too early to award Trump until the results of his peace policies in the coming year are clear. They wished they had shown such patience and wisdom when they awarded former US President Barack Obama shortly after his inauguration or when they gave the prize to Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman… for what exactly? We do not know.

Returning to the prize in its less controversial scientific aspect, it was amusing that the prize officials failed to contact the American scientist Fred Ramsdell, Nobel laureate in Medicine, as he was isolated in the American wilderness!

But the best news for me was the awarding of the Nobel Prize to the chemist Omar Yaghi, jointly with two other scientists in the same field, in recognition of “their development of metal-organic frameworks.”

Yaghi has Palestinian roots, then Jordanian, then Saudi, and of course holds American citizenship. He was born in Amman in 1965, studied there until high school, then moved to Hudson Valley Community College in the US, continued at the University at Albany, and earned his PhD in chemistry at an early age in 1990 from the University of Illinois.

He obtained Saudi citizenship in 2021 and has received the King Faisal International Prize in Chemistry (2015), the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water, and in 2017 was awarded the First Class Excellence Medal by Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

This scientist, who benefits humanity with his knowledge, is a source of pride for both Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Let competitors compete in this regard; this is the value and status of science. Glory to science and scientists.

“Science builds a house without pillars, ignorance destroys a house of honor and dignity.”

This wonderful story and inspiring journey of a man who grew up poor in a neighborhood of Amman and became a distinguished figure in science and the world, embodies noble values, including rejecting harmful chauvinism and ignorant self-isolation.

Dr. Omar Yaghi, the Saudi-Jordanian scientist, spoke at a seminar held at Stockholm University in May 2019 to a group of students, saying: “When I was about ten years old, I entered a library that was supposed to be closed, lived among the books, and found these kinds of drawings – which I later learned were molecules – and for some reason, they fascinated me! I did not know I would spend the rest of my life dealing with chemical structures.”

The great journey begins with small steps.