A life in context
The person behind the prize
Yaghi was born in Jordan and pursued higher education in the United States, receiving his doctorate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He developed reticular chemistry: building extended structures by joining chosen molecular pieces in predictable arrangements.
The contribution
He created stable metal–organic frameworks and showed how their structures and properties could be systematically redesigned. This helped make porous crystals a versatile platform for storing and separating molecules.
The idea in plain language
A metal–organic framework, or MOF, is an extended structure made by linking metal centres with carbon-containing molecules. The result can contain many tiny pores: an enormous internal surface tucked inside a small amount of solid.
Read the full award story ↗
