From Scarcity to Superabundance: A Journey into Water, Materials, and AI

Speaker: Professor Omar M. Yaghi, 2025 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

Time: 21:00 to 22:00, July 29, 2026

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Abstract

Professor Omar M. Yaghi will present his story from scarcity to abundance, outlining how a child from humble beginnings can reach the Nobel. He will discuss how his research has developed chemistry capable of creating an infinite number of new materials, leading to the largest class of materials ever made: abundance. He will also explore how we deal with abundance in the age of AI.

The core of the presentation will focus on how molecules can be made into materials and ultimately commercialized products, such as technologies for harvesting water from air to make clean water and capturing carbon from air. Professor Yaghi will also discuss how AI is helping us discover and improve the cycle from invention to commercialization.

Biography

Professor Omar M. Yaghi was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is the Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley and the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute. Yaghi is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as well as the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.Professor Omar M. Yaghi is widely recognized as one of the most influential chemists of our time. His groundbreaking work on Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) has transformed the fields of chemistry and materials science, while establishing Reticular Chemistry as an entirely new area of research. Under the theoretical framework he pioneered, more than 100,000 distinct MOF structures have been synthesized. These highly porous materials have demonstrated remarkable potential across a wide range of applications, including gas storage, catalysis, atmospheric water harvesting, carbon capture, and drug delivery.