Chemistry Nobel awarded to three scientists for their work on metal organic frameworks

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M Yaghi for their work on metal organic frameworks.

The announcement was made by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

Speaking on the phone at the press conference after being told the news, Professor Kitagawa said, “I feel deeply honored and happy, thank you very much.”

“How long do I have to stay here? Because I have to go out for a meeting,” he added.

The three winners will share the prize money of 11 million Swedish krona (£872,000).

The work of three scientists is about how molecules can be put together into structures. The Nobel committee called this “molecular architecture”.

The men figured out how to build structures with large spaces between molecules through which gases and other chemicals could flow.

These are called “metal-organic frameworks”. They can be used to extract water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide that could help combat climate change, or store toxic gases.

Professor Kitagawa works at Kyoto University in Japan, Professor Richard Robson is at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and Professor Omar M. Yaghi is at the University of California, USA.

Last year, Demis Hassabis, John Jumper and David Baker were deemed worthy of the award for their work on proteins, the building blocks of life.

This is the third science prize awarded this week. On Tuesday, John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on quantum mechanics, which paved the way for the quantum computer.

On Monday, three scientists won a medical award for their work on how the immune system attacks hostile infections.

One of the winners, Dr. Fred Ramsdell went unheard for 20 hours because he was on an off-grid hiking trip.