Omar Yaghi was changing flights when he heard the news that he had been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on October 8. "Astonished, delighted, overwhelmed," was his first reaction. He shares the prize with Susumu Kitagawa of Japan and Richard Robson of Australia for their collective work“for the development of metal–organic frameworks”, materials with vast internal spaces that can trap gases, harvest water from air, and address pressing environmental challenges.

When Khaleej Times spoke to him after he received the Arab Great Mind Award in January 2025, he reflected on his journey, saying, "I didn't wait for ideal circumstances to pursue my passion for molecules. From the simplest drawings in my youth, I saw beauty and potential. Today, my work has led to solutions for clean air, water, and energy."

Sometimes, from the heart of the harshest circumstances, the greatest are born. According to multiple sources, Yaghi's parents fled Jaffa in 1948 during the Nakba. He was born in 1965 in Amman, Jordan and grew up with his siblings in a one-room home that also housed the family's cattle. Access to clean water, electricity, and space to think was extremely limited.

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Speaking to the Nobel Prize team, Yaghi said, "I was born in a family of refugees and my parents barely could read or write. I think my father finished sixth grade and my mother couldn't read and write. So it's quite a journey, and science allows you to do it."

His passion for chemistry began early. "In fact, when I was 10 years old, I went to the library and opened a book and there I found molecules - we call them stick-and-ball diagrams of molecules. I didn't know they were molecules, but somehow I was immediately drawn to them.”

Later, he learned that these are molecules that make up our world. Since then, he has chosen the problems to investigate - chemical problems, intellectual problems - based on the beauty of the molecules that are to be made and studied.

Yaghi, the first Nobel Laureate to be born in Jordan, is widely recognised as the father of the field of metal-organic frameworks. He has built a world-renowned career advancing reticular chemistry, creating materials that can harvest water from air, capture carbon dioxide, and tackle pressing environmental challenges. He has published over 300 research papers, with more than 250,000 citations of his work.

Over the years, he has guided generations of students, not just in chemistry but in following their passions. "When I give lectures to younger students, some of them ask me, how do you become passionate about something? How do you fall in love with chemistry? I keep saying, just pick anything in your surroundings and think deeply about what it is made of, and dig deeper. The deeper you dig, the more beautiful things you find that are constructed. That allows you an opportunity to be attracted to chemistry. You don't need a magnificent plan yet at such an early age - just follow what draws you toward a problem or a field."

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, carries 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million) and the prestige of arguably the world's most renowned science award.

The Saudi, Jordanian, and American citizen is the second Muslim to be awarded the Chemistry Nobel and, according to reports, the 16th Muslim in history to receive a Nobel Prize. He was also recognised with the Arab Great Minds Award in January 2025.

Arabic leaders celebrated his achievement. The Dubai Ruler , who had personally presented Yaghi with the Arab Geniuses Award last year, extended his congratulations on this historic achievement, celebrating not only the professor's success but also the brilliance emerging from the Arab world.

"A year ago, we honoured Professor Omar Yaghi with the Arab Geniuses Award in the category of Natural Sciences... and today we congratulate him on winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry," said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE, and Ruler of Dubai.

King Abdullah II of Jordan also shared his congratulations on X, saying:“We take pride in and honour the Jordanian scientist Professor Omar Yaghi, and we congratulate him and Jordan on his winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the year 2025. This achievement is a new source of pride added to the honourable record of Jordanians in various fields around the world, and it proves that the Jordanian is capable of making a difference wherever he may be."

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