From refugee to Nobel: Winner Yaghi applauds science’s equalising force

Born into a family of Palestinian refugees in Jordan with little schooling, Nobel chemistry laureate Omar Yaghi on Wednesday paid tribute to science's "equalising force".

- Agence France-Presse

Yaghi, a Jordanian-American, won the 2025 prize together with Susumu Kitagawa of Japan and UK-born Richard Robson for their groundbreaking discoveries on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), whose uses include capturing carbon dioxide and harvesting water from desert air.

"I grew up in a very humble home. We were a dozen of us in one small room, sharing it with the cattle that we used to raise," he told the Nobel Foundation in an interview after learning he had won the prestigious prize.