Three scientists shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for their work developing a new form of molecular architecture.
“Through the development of metal-organic frameworks, the laureates have provided chemists with new opportunities for solving some of the challenges we face,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
It awarded the prize to Susumu Kitagawa, 74, a professor at Kyoto University in Japan; Richard Robson, 88, of the University of Melbourne, Australia; and Omar M. Yaghi, 60, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Yaghi was born in Jordan to a family of Palestinian refugees. He moved to the United States at age 15 and has become an American citizen.
“I was in love with chemistry from the very beginning,” Yaghi said, according to the university. “I really loved the lab. I disliked class, but I loved the lab.”
Nobel officials said Yaghi and Kitagawa built on work by Robson in 1989 with research that they likened to Hermione's enchanted handbag in "Harry Potter."
“They have found ways to create materials, entirely novel materials, with large cavities on their inside which can be seen almost like rooms in a hotel, so that guest molecules can enter and also exit again from the same material,” said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
“A small amount of such material can be almost like Hermione’s handbag in Harry Potter. It can store huge amounts of gas in a tiny volume,” he added.
The trio created molecular constructions that “can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, and store toxic gases,” the academy said.
Their discoveries "may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges," it added.
Kitagawa thanked his family, colleagues, students and fellow postgraduate researchers at a news conference at Kyoto University.
"I am deeply moved to receive such a great honor at this time," he said.
Alfred Nobel was a chemist himself, and his work in the field laid the foundation for the fortune he built from inventing dynamite in the 19th century.
Last year’s chemistry award went to U.S. scientists David Baker, John Jumper and Briton Demis Hassabis for work on decoding the structure of proteins and creating new ones, yielding advances in areas such as drug development.
Two Americans were among those awarded this year's medicine prize Monday for work on the human immune system, and three U.S.-based scientists were awarded the physics prize Tuesday for their discoveries in quantum mechanics.
The Nobel Prize for literature will be announced Thursday, followed by the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday and the memorial prize for economics Monday.
