Thought-provoking suggestions for loving chemistry from the 2025 Nobel Prize winner

Professor Omar Yaghi, who has just been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shares his passion for the beauty of chemistry and how science has opened up endless possibilities, in a phone interview shortly after learning of his award.

Chemistry professor Omar Yaghi works in his laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley - Photo: REUTERS

While Mr. Omar Yaghi was changing flights, he received good news: he had just been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. At that time, Mr. Adam Smith from Nobelprize.org contacted this scientist .

And in their phone conversation just before the plane took off again, Mr. Yaghi shared about his research journey to develop metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), the achievement that helped him be honored in this year's Nobel Prize season.

"Opening the gold mine" from the ability to control matter

"Amazing. Then overjoyed. Yes, absolutely overwhelmed," said Yaghi, known as the "father" of the field of metal-organic frameworks, and perhaps the first person born in Jordan to receive a Nobel Prize - a milestone in his own right.

How to become passionate about chemistry?

You know, when I give lectures to younger students, some of them ask me how do you become passionate about something? How do you love chemistry? I always say: just pick anything around you and think deeply about what it's made of, and then dig deeper.

The deeper you dig, the more beautiful things you find, the way things are made. That at least gives you a chance, the best chance, to be attracted to chemistry. So you don’t have to have a grand plan from an early age. You just follow what attracts you to a certain problem or field.

- Professor Omar Yaghi -

When he started his solo career at Arizona State University, he dreamed of publishing a paper with 100 citations. Now, his research group has more than 250,000 citations—a staggering number. “The great thing about chemistry is that if you can control matter at the atomic and molecular level—the possibilities are enormous,” he explains.

And in Yaghi’s words, the team “opened a gold mine” by doing so. The field of metal-organic frameworks that he pioneered has flourished over the past 30 years, opening up opportunities for many other scientists to step in and shine.

“The beautiful thing about this field, in my opinion, is that it allows scientists to find their own direction, build their careers, develop their ideas, and then they themselves become pillars of the industry.”

Professor Omar Yaghi visited teachers and students of INOMAR Center (Center for Research on Nanostructured and Molecular Materials) under Ho Chi Minh City National University in November 2014 - Photo (documentary): HOANG DUNG

By controlling matter at the atomic and molecular level, scientists can envision what they want to create to solve specific problems – from big challenges like water treatment and CO₂ capture, to sensors and therapeutics.

“We can control, we can adjust – and first we build the structural frameworks, and then we can almost surgically add or remove components, which allows you to create chambers that are tailored to precisely select specific components from a larger mixture,” he explains.

“We figured out the ‘recipe’ to do it, the conditions needed to make it happen, and from that discovered a huge diversity of structural frameworks, and with them a huge number of potential applications,” he added.

Professor Omar Yaghi - Photo: Berkeley.edu

The beauty of molecules and research philosophy

What few people know is that Yaghi didn't start out with the ambition of solving the world's biggest problems. "When I started, I didn't set out to solve the world's carbon problem or water problem. I set out to create beautiful things and solve an intellectual problem," he shared.

It all started with a book in the library when Yaghi was 10 years old. “I 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.” From then on, he chose research problems based on the beauty of the molecules they would create.

“I was initially interested in the beauty of molecules,” Yaghi adds. It’s a chemist’s dream: to build chemical structures using a “building-block” approach. And his team has found the formula to make that dream come true.

The interview ended with a final reminder from the loudspeakers on the plane. Perhaps on that flight, when the news spread, there were small celebrations. And surely the passengers sitting nearby listened with interest to the story of a great scientist - who proved that with passion and perseverance, all dreams can come true.

* Mai Ly rewrote from the content of Adam Smith's interview with Professor Omar Yaghi on Nobelprize.org, edited by Dr. Nguyen Xuan Xanh

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Dr. Nguyen Xuan Xanh - Mai Ly

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/goi-y-dang-suy-ngam-de-co-the-yeu-thich-mon-hoa-tu-chu-nhan-nobel-2025-20251010104105108.htm