American chemist at the University of California, Berkeley. He won the 2025 Nobel chemistry prize, alongside Kitagawa Susumu and Richard Robson, for his work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
The Nobel committee flagged his creation in 1999 of MOF-5, described as the "paragon and showcase of the entire field". A gram of MOF-5 can boast nearly 3,000 square metres of internal surface area, compared with several hundred for natural zeolites. It is stable at temperatures up to 300°C and its cavities can be tweaked to accommodate all sorts of molecular guests.
Maybe Jesus was right when he said that the meek shall inherit the earth -- but they inherit very small plots, about six feet by three.