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Omar M. Yaghi is the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry and University Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany in 1985 and his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990, followed by an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University from 1990 to 1992. His career trajectory includes serving as Assistant Professor at Arizona State University starting in 1992, Robert W. Parry Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan in 1999, and Christopher S. Foote Professor of Chemistry at UCLA from 2006 to 2012. Since 2012, he has held his current professorship at Berkeley, alongside roles as Senior Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute, and Co-Director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute and the California Research Alliance by BASF.
Yaghi pioneered reticular chemistry, which he defines as stitching molecular building blocks into extended crystalline structures held together by strong bonds. He discovered metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), achieving materials with the highest known surface areas. These frameworks support applications in hydrogen and methane storage, carbon dioxide capture and conversion to fuels, water harvesting from desert air using sunlight, and selective catalysis. Notable publications include 'Reticular synthesis and the design of new materials' (Nature, 2003), 'The chemistry and applications of metal-organic frameworks' (Science Advances, 2013), 'Design and synthesis of an exceptionally stable and highly porous metal-organic framework' (Nature, 1999), and demonstrations of MOF-based water harvesters (Science, 2017). With over 300 articles, exceeding 284,000 citations, and an h-index of 190, his innovations have established reticular chemistry as a global field. Yaghi's honors include the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2018), King Faisal International Prize in Science (2015), BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2017), Gregori Aminoff Prize (2019), election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2019), and German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2022).
Nobel-winning chemist Omar Yaghi moves to China to pioneer AI applications in materials science, targeting global challenges like carbon neutrality and water scarcity.
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