Nobel chemistry laureate Omar Yaghi leaves UC Berkeley to direct Tsinghua AI materials research center
A 2025 Nobel laureate has moved from the US to China. Chemist Omar Yaghi left UC Berkeley after nearly five decades in the US to direct Tsinghua University's new AI for Chemistry and Materials Science Research Center, announced July 3. He cited US grant cuts. Per Nature.
One of the laureates of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is moving his work from the United States to China. Omar Yaghi, who shared the prize with Richard Robson and Susumu Kitagawa for the development of metal-organic frameworks, has left the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry. Tsinghua University announced on July 3 that Yaghi will direct its new AI for Chemistry and Materials Science Research Center in Beijing. Yaghi spent nearly five decades in the US. He has held an honorary professorship at Tsinghua since January 2022 and has collaborated with the university on research and talent development for years. In an interview with Scientific American last month, he said the state of US science is 'not so encouraging' because of cuts to research grants, and voiced concern that US researchers were not embracing an AI-driven approach to research. Metal-organic frameworks, the field Yaghi pioneered, are porous materials whose customizable structures can capture, store and process specific chemicals. Documented applications include carbon capture and harvesting water from air. Tsinghua's new center pairs this materials chemistry with AI-driven discovery methods. Sources: Nature, South China Morning Post.