Nobel Laureate Omar Yaghi ‘85 Comes Home to UAlbany on April 2
By Amy Geduldig
ALBANY, N.Y. (Mar. 3, 2026) — Nobel Prize-winning chemist and University at Albany alum Omar M. Yaghi will return to the Capital Region on April 2, visiting both Hudson Valley Community College and UAlbany.
Yaghi began his academic journey in the Capital Region, earning an associate’s degree from Hudson Valley in 1983 before completing his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at UAlbany, where he graduated cum laude in 1985.
During his visit to UAlbany in the afternoon, Yaghi will participate in a moderated public program with UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez and Hudson Valley President Michael Brophy. The conversation will be held at the Performing Arts Center at 3:30 p.m. and will include audience questions. He will also deliver the 16th Henry Kuivila Lecture — hosted by UAlbany’s Department of Chemistry — as well as tour research spaces and laboratories, and meet with students, faculty and staff.
Hudson Valley will welcome Yaghi to campus that morning beginning with a town hall titled "Pathways to the Prize,” followed by a press conference and guided campus tour.
Yaghi received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared with Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University and Richard Robson of the University of Melbourne, for his groundbreaking work in the development of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) — porous molecular structures that can support new approaches to clean energy and environmental sustainability. His research demonstrated that these frameworks can store hydrogen and methane for clean fuel, capture industrial CO₂ emissions and pull drinkable water directly from desert air.
Born in Amman, Jordan, Yaghi moved to the United States at age 15 and settled in Troy, N.Y. After completing his studies in the Capital Region, Yaghi earned his PhD in chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and completed a National Science Foundation (NSF) postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. He currently serves as the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and is the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute.