ESRF's connection to the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The ESRF collaborated with Professor Yaghi's team on a study featured as an ESRF Highlight in 2023 on high-porosity MOF glasses.

The work leveraged the BM23 beamline's X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) capabilities. While Professor Yaghi was the main proposer on the beamtime proposal, the measurements and data analysis were performed locally by Kirill Lomachenko and postdoc Cesare Atzori, with remote participation from US collaborators. The resulting XAS data and analysis complemented the broader narrative of the publication and underlined BM23's strengths for MOF investigations.

This single paper did not determine the Nobel decision, which recognises decades of transformative work, but it represents a valuable partnership and showcases ESRF's role in enabling world-class chemistry and materials science. Publishing with a laureate is rare and noteworthy, and it highlights how ESRF instrumentation and expertise contribute to advances at the forefront of MOF research. Kirill Lomachenko, co-author in the publication, explains: "I’m grateful to have had the chance to collaborate and co-author a publication with Professor Omar Yaghi, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry 2025. It started when I gave a talk at his Lab in Berkeley about the ESRF capabilities. That led him and his team to apply for beamtime, which eventually grew into a fruitful collaboration. For me, it’s a highlight of how valuable networking with fellow researchers is for advancing science".

ESRF warmly congratulates Professor Yaghi and all the laureates on this well-deserved recognition, and looks forward to supporting future MOF studies through BM23 capabilities (XRD/XAS/MS, XAS/MS/DRIFTS)  and across the facility on beamlines such as ID22, SNBL (both BM31 and BM01), ID26, ID24 and ID15A. 

Reference:

https://www.esrf.fr/Apache_files/Highlights/2023/121-ESRF-Highlights-2023.html#/page/120

Top image: Omar M. Yaghi. Photo: Christopher Michel.