Among the Nobel Prize laureates last Wednesday were Israeli - American economist Joel Mokyr and Palestinian – American chemist Omar Yaghi.
“It is my express wish that no regard be attached to any kind of nationality when the prizes are awarded, so that the worthiest person receives the prize, whether he is Scandinavian or not,” Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor and businessman, stated in his testament 1895. His will was that the prize should go to those who have “done the greatest service to humanity.”
“When the Nobel laureates receive their awards at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, their backgrounds testify to a geographical diversity,” Hans Ellegren, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, wrote in Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. “They have grown up in a number of different countries: England, France, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Canada, Hungary and the US.”
The Swedish Central Bank’s Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was shared between Joel Mokyr (1/2) and Philippe Aghion (France) and Peter Howitt (US) for having explained innovation-driven economic growth. Omar Yaghi (1/3) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Susumu Kitagawa (Japan) and Richard Hobson (Australia) for their development of metal–organic frameworks.
Mokyr was born in 1946 in Leyden, the Netherlands, to Holocaust survivor parents. After the death of his father, he immigrated to Israel with his mother where he earned a bachelor's degree in history and economics at the Hebrew University. He later joined Northwestern University in Chicago as a researcher and lecturer and is also a regular visiting professor at Tel Aviv University.
According to the prize motivation, the world has seen sustained economic growth over the last two centuries. However, this was not always the case. Joel Mokyr used historical sources as one means to uncover the causes of sustained growth becoming the new normal. He also emphasised the importance of society being open to new ideas and allowing change.
Omar Yaghi was born to Palestinian refugees in 1965 in Amman, Jordan, and is the first Palestinian to win a Nobel Prize in science.
The Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry have created molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow. These constructions, metal–organic frameworks (MOF), can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyse chemical reactions.
“I grew up in Amman, Jordan, in a refugee family of ten children, in a home with no running water and no electricity, sharing our space with livestock, our family’s livelihood,” Omar Yaghi said in his Nobel Banquet speech. “Hardship was everywhere. My chances for success were slim—except for the surprising ways nature reveals itself and helps us overcome.”
Yaghi created a very stable MOF and showed that it can be modified using rational design, giving it new and desirable properties. Following the laureates’ groundbreaking discoveries, chemists have built tens of thousands of different MOFs. Some of these may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges.
“We should keep in mind that today humanity faces unprecedented existential threats,” Joel Mokyr said in his Nobel Banquet speech. “It has to cope with global warming by coming up with techniques that cope with it. It needs to deal with a demographic transformation that has produced more and more octogenarians and fewer and fewer working women and men. It may face more pandemics.”
“The only solution is to adapt and invent ourselves around these problems. History exemplifies how in the past ingenuity has solved the technical challenges of society, from smallpox vaccination to nitrogen fixing to cancer therapy. It must continue to do so – because any alternative will be disastrous.”
Omar Yaghi said in his speech that, “We celebrate not only achievement but possibility—the power of human curiosity to reshape the world. Our development of metal–organic frameworks, or MOFs, began with a simple but bold idea: that we could design materials with atomic precision, forming strong purposeful bonds that unlock remarkable functions."
“From this idea came new possibilities: the power of pulling pure water from desert air, capturing carbon dioxide directly from the sky. These are only early chapters. With countless structures and applications, MOFs are rapidly moving from promise to practical tools that are changing countless lives.”
“And here lies our greatest hope: a science capable of reimagining matter, and a generation eager to move it forward. I urge our leaders to act. Scientists are not asking for privilege, but for possibility. Support their curiosity. Remove barriers. Protect academic freedom. Welcome global talent.”
