Overview

• Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi were awarded for developing metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and will equally share the 11 million Swedish kronor prize.
• The Nobel committee described MOFs as crystalline networks with vast internal surfaces that can collect water from desert air, capture CO₂, store toxic gases or catalyze reactions.
• Robson’s late‑1980s constructs inspired the field, Kitagawa demonstrated gas flow and flexibility in the materials, and Yaghi built stable, designable MOFs such as early benchmark systems.
• Researchers have since created tens of thousands of MOF variants, and laboratories and industry are evaluating applications in gas storage, pollutant removal and environmental remediation.
• A day earlier, the Physics Nobel went to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis for demonstrating macroscopic quantum tunneling and energy quantization in superconducting circuits, work that underpins modern quantum technologies; Nobel ceremonies are set for December 10.