Omar M. Yaghi

Omar Mwannes Yaghi (Arabic: عمر مُؤنس ياغي; born February 9, 1965) is a chemist best known for developing metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and pioneering reticular chemistry. He was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared with Richard Robson and Susumu Kitagawa, for this work. From 2012 to 2026, Yaghi was a University Professor and James and Neeltje Tretter Endowed Chair in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. In July 2026, he left the university to lead a newly-established artificial intelligence and material science research institute at Tsinghua University. Analysts and media outlets characterized the move as a significant indicator of shifting geopolitical dynamics in scientific research, driven by factors such as changing federal funding structures in the United States and expanded institutional recruitment initiatives by China. Yaghi is also an affiliate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, founding director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. In January 2025, he became the seventh president of the World Cultural Council, an international organization promoting cultural and scientific advancement.

Early life and education Omar Mwannes Yaghi was born in Amman, Jordan, on February 9, 1965, to a Palestinian refugee family that had fled from Masmiya, a city located between Jaffa and Jerusalem, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He grew up in a crowded household with many children, all living in a single room that also housed the family's livestock. The family had limited access to clean water. At the age of 15, encouraged by his father, he moved to the United States. Although he knew little English, he began classes at Hudson Valley Community College. He graduated in 1983 with an Associate of Science in Mathematics and Science. He then transferred to the State University of New York at Albany, where he completed his Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree in 1985. He pursued his graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, earning his PhD in 1990 under the guidance of Walter G. Klemperer. He then served as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University (1990–1992) under Richard H. Holm. In July 2026 he moved to Tsinghua University, China, as full time Chair Professor. He had been an Honorary Professor there since 2022 and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2025. In 2021, Yaghi was granted Saudi citizenship by royal decree.

Academic career Yaghi began his academic career as an assistant professor at Arizona State University (1992–1998). He then held the Robert W. Parry Professorship of Chemistry at the University of Michigan (1999–2006), followed by the Christopher S. Foote Professorship of Chemistry and the Irving and Jean Stone Chair in Physical Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (2007–2012). In 2012, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry. From 2012 to 2013, he served as the director of the Molecular Foundry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute and a co-director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute, a partnership between UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He also co-directs the California Research Alliance by BASF and the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet. In May 2025, the University of California Board of Regents promoted Yaghi to the rank of University Professor, the system's highest honor reserved for scholars of the highest international distinction. In July 2026, Yaghi vacated his position at UC Berkeley to launch the Yaghi Science Initiative and to take up a position at Tsinghua University in China, to lead an artificial intelligence laboratory dedicated to accelerating the discovery of new materials.

Research

Reticular chemistry

Yaghi is the pioneer of reticular chemistry, a field dedicated to assembling molecular building blocks into open, crystalline frameworks using strong bonds. According to the International Balzan Prize Foundation, Yaghi first proposed using molecular building blocks and strong bonds to form crystalline materials in the early 1990s. At the time, the scientific community considered this idea chemically unfeasible, as such syntheses typically resulted in non-crystalline, amorphous solids. However, in 1995, Yaghi successfully crystallized metal-organic structures in which metal ions are connected by charged organic linkers, such as carboxylates, via strong bonds. This breakthrough led to the development of a new class of materials known as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), marking the birth of reticular chemistry.

Metal-organic frameworks

Yaghi's most recognized work is in the design, synthesis, application, and popularization of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). According to IUPAC, MOFs are a subclass of coordination polymers, a category first reported in 1959. Earlier work included E. A. Tomic's 1965 study on the thermal stability of various coordination polymers and the work of Hoskins and Richard Robson in 1989 on a 3D coordination polymer structure. However, these early coordination polymers were typically frail, disordered structures with poorly defined properties. In the 1990s, Yaghi made three key breakthroughs that transformed fragile coordination polymers into the architecturally robust, permanently porous MOFs in use today:

The crystallization of metal-organic structures using strong bonds between metal ions and charged organic linkers like carboxylates (1995). The introduction of metal-carboxylate clusters as secondary building units (SBUs), which enabled robust frameworks with permanent porosity, later confirmed by gas adsorption isotherms (1998). The realization of ultra-high porosity with MOF-5 (1999). The strong bonds in MOFs are fundamental to their structural robustness, ultra-high porosity, and longevity in industrial applications.

Covalent organic frameworks

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