The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Kitagawa Susumu and two other scientists for the development of metal-organic frameworks.

Kitagawa Susumu, Executive Vice-President for Research Promotion at Kyoto University / would like to express my gratitude to our colleagues who have advanced chemistry together, to all our students, and to our postdoctoral researchers, including those from overseas.

Kitagawa, Richard Robson from University of Melbourne and Omar M. Yaghi from University of California won the prize for creating molecular constructions with large spaces in which gases and other chemicals can flow.

The materials developed by Kitagawa can selectively extract or store only the desired gas from mixtures containing gases like nitrogen and oxygen by customizing the pore size to accommodate the desired gas.

The Nobel Foundation said that the discovery may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges that include capturing carbon dioxide or harvesting water from desert air.

Kitagawa Susumu, Executive Vice-President for Research Promotion at Kyoto University /  I believe that by challenging what was previously impossible, what no one understood, what seemed absolutely impossible, and achieving it, we can spur new developments.

This marks the ninth Japanese recipient of the Chemistry Prize since Yoshino Akira in 2019.

The award ceremony will be held in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10.