KACST honours Nobel chemistry winner Omar Yaghi
- Jan 29
- 1 min read
Riyadh, January 29, 2026 (Saudi Arabia Breaking News) – King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology held a ceremony to recognise Professor Omar Yaghi, winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and supervisor of the joint nanomaterials centre of excellence run by KACST and the University of California, Berkeley.
KACST described Yaghi as the first Saudi scientist to receive a Nobel Prize, citing his work in establishing reticular chemistry and contributions linked to energy, environmental applications and advanced materials.
KACST President Dr. Munir bin Mahmoud Eldesouki attended the event, which was framed as part of Saudi Vision 2030 objectives that position scientific research as a pillar of an innovation-led knowledge economy.
In remarks during the programme, Yaghi credited support from Saudi Arabia’s leadership with strengthening the Kingdom’s research, development and innovation ecosystem. He highlighted sustained investment in national talent and described KACST collaboration as a model for long-term partnerships and human-capital development, linking advances in materials science to practical applications.
The programme also recognised winners of the Artificial Intelligence for Materials Discovery Hackathon, organised by KACST in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley and Academy 32. NajdGenesis-AI took first place for a project described as a Saudi generative AI platform to develop bio-hybrid CO₂-capture materials optimised for industrial conditions. Fabricator.ai placed second for work on designing, re-engineering, synthesising and fabricating MOFs/COFs-based materials, and Prime-MOF placed third for a project using large language models to predict MOF stability.
The event concluded with an interactive dialogue between Yaghi and students and researchers, where he discussed milestones from his scientific career and encouraged early foundation-building and continuous skills development in research.
