From Palestinian refugee roots to Nobel glory: The inspiring journey of chemist Omar Yaghi
“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,” Yaghi told the Nobel Foundation in an interview after his win
Studying chemistry was never an obvious path for Omar Yaghi, the 2025 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry. Born to a Palestinian refugee family in Amman, Jordan, and raised with his many siblings in a single room above his father's butcher shop, Yaghi grew up amid scarcity. Their small home, shared at times with cattle, had no electricity or running water.
"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," Yaghi told the Nobel Foundation in an interview after his win.
His father had only completed sixth grade, while his mother could neither read nor write.
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School, however, was his sanctuary.
At the age of ten, Yaghi sneaked into the locked school library and picked a random book off the shelf. Inside, he found strange, intricate drawings - molecular structures - that captured his imagination. It was his first glimpse into the invisible world that would one day make him a Nobel laureate.
According to Gulf News, Yaghi's life changed again at 15 when his father decided he should study in the United States. Within a year, he had obtained a visa and moved alone to Troy, New York, to pursue an education.
With limited English, he enrolled in Hudson Valley Community College, supporting himself by bagging groceries and mopping floors. He graduated cum laude in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry before earning a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990.
After a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, Yaghi began teaching at Arizona State University in 1992, where his pioneering research began to take shape.
He later joined the University of Michigan, then UCLA, and eventually UC Berkeley, where he became director of the Molecular Foundry and founded the Berkeley Global Science Institute.
"I was in love with chemistry from the very beginning," he said in a UC Berkeley report. "I disliked class, but I loved the lab.
Rewriting the rules of chemistry
In 1992, Yaghi set out to rethink how materials were built. Traditional chemical synthesis was often unpredictable, mixing substances and heating them to produce compounds, with many unwanted by-products. Yaghi envisioned a more rational, modular approach, akin to assembling Lego pieces.
By connecting metal ions with organic molecules, his team created ordered, net-like structures that became known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). In 1995, Yaghi published the structure of the first such materials, which could host other molecules and withstand high temperatures.
The discovery redefined materials chemistry.
In 1999, Yaghi introduced MOF-5, a highly stable compound with an immense surface area, just a few grams contained the equivalent of a football field. These structures could capture and store gases such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and even harvest water from arid air.
A scientist shaped by struggle
As reported by Gulf News, Yaghi's early hardships shaped both his philosophy and scientific pursuits. His invention of frameworks capable of extracting water from dry air echoes his own childhood in Jordan, where water was scarce.
TRT World notes that Yaghi's "molecular architecture" can capture toxic gases, store clean fuels, and generate water where taps once ran dry, technologies that could transform life in water-stressed regions like Gaza, where his family's Bedouin village once stood.
He rarely makes overt political statements about his Palestinian roots, yet his work speaks to that history.
"From waiting for water to inventing ways to pull it from air," as TRT World describes, Yaghi's life embodies the power of perseverance and the boundless reach of curiosity.
Recognition and legacy
Now an American citizen based in Berkeley, Yaghi's influence extends far beyond his laboratory. His concept of reticular chemistry, the deliberate linking of molecular building blocks, has opened a new frontier in science.
He is among the world's most cited chemists, with over 300 papers and more than 250,000 citations. His honours include the 2018 Wolf Prize, the 2024 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development, and the 2025 Von Hippel Award.
At UC Berkeley, he continues to mentor young researchers across continents through programmes that promote "science without borders," establishing research centres from Jordan to Japan.
From a one-room home above a butcher shop in Amman to the Nobel stage in Stockholm, Omar Yaghi's journey stands as a testament to resilience and imagination, the story of a Palestinian refugee who turned displacement into discovery and scarcity into science.
To his students at Berkeley, Omar Yaghi is known for his quiet humility. To his colleagues, he stands as a visionary who reshaped modern chemistry. But to Palestinians scattered across the world, he symbolises something deeper - proof that exile can give rise not only to longing, but to light.
Jordanian by upbringing, Saudi by citizenship, and American by passport, Yaghi's roots trace back unmistakably to Gaza - a heritage he carries not in slogans, but in spirit.
The boy who once queued with buckets beneath a leaking tap has now found a way to draw water from air itself.
