Japan’s Susumu Kitagawa wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry, joins list of Japanese winners

October 9, 2025

TOKYO – Kyoto University Prof. Susumu Kitagawa along with Richard Robson, affiliated with the University of Melbourne in Australia, and Omar M. Yaghi, with the University of California, Berkeley, won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday.

Kitagawa, 74, has contributed to the development of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a type of porous material. MOFs can be used in various fields, leveraging their unique structure to selectively absorb and desorb target gases. Among their applications, the materials can sequester greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and store substances like oxygen.

This marks Japan’s second time winning a Nobel Prize this year, following the physiology or medicine prize awarded to Shimon Sakaguchi.

Kitagawa is the 30th individual Japanese Nobel laureate, a list that includes three winners who have U.S. citizenship.

Kitagawa is the ninth chemistry prize winner from Japan, following Akira Yoshino, who won the prize in 2019.

The award ceremony will be held in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, who founded the Nobel Prizes.