Omar M. Yaghi
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
Biography
Professor Omar Yaghi is widely known for pioneering a new field of chemistry, Reticular Chemistry, which he defines as ‘stitching molecular building blocks into crystalline framework structures by strong bonds’. The outcome of this chemistry has been metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs). These materials have the highest surface areas known to date, making them useful for hydrogen and methane storage, carbon capture and conversion, water harvesting from desert air, catalysis, and healthcare. The chemistry approach he developed has led to an exponential growth in the creation of new materials. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles on MOFs and COFs, which have received a total of more than 250,000 citations.
Yaghi is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2019) and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2022). He has also been honored with many awards, including the Sacconi Medal of the Italian Chemical Society (2004), Materials Research Society Medal (2007), American Chemical Society Award in the Chemistry of Materials (2009), Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize (2010), King Faisal International Prize in Science (2015), Albert Einstein World Award of Science (2017), BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences (2017), Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2018), Eni Award for Excellence in Energy (2018), Gregori Aminoff Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2019), August-Wilhelm-von-Hofmann-Denkmünze of the German Chemical Society (2020), Royal Society of Chemistry Sustainable Water Award (2020), VinFuture Prize for Emerging Science and Technology (2021), Wilhelm Exner Medal (2023), Fiat Lux Award-UC Berkeley (2024), Solvay Prize (2024), Tang Prize (2024), and Balzan Prize (2024).