المملكة: Omar Yaghi: Leadership support has enabled scientists to achieve world-class achievements
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (Cast), today, with Professor Omar bin Mu’nis Yaghi, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the year 2025, and supervisor of the Joint Center of Excellence in Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Applications between… "Cactus" And the University of California Berkeley, as the first Saudi scientist to receive this award, in recognition of his pioneering contributions to establishing the science of retinal chemistry and his role in supporting and developing the fields of energy, environment and advanced materials.
This celebration, which was held in the presence of His Excellency the President of CAXT, Dr. Munir bin Mahmoud Al-Desouki, comes as confirmation of the Kingdom’s keenness to appreciate its scientific competencies and highlight their achievements in international forums, in order to achieve the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 in promoting scientific research as a basic pillar for building an economy. Cognitive based on innovation.
The professor appreciated Omar Yaghi, in his speech during the celebration, supported the wise leadership – may God support it -, which had a great impact in strengthening the research, development and innovation system, stressing that this support, empowerment and attention provided scientists with a stimulating environment that enabled them to achieve qualitative achievements at the global level, pointing out that the vision of the wise leadership to invest in national competencies contributed to building an integrated research system that places the Kingdom among the scientifically leading countries.
Investment in Minds
He stressed that scientific cooperation with "Cactus" It constitutes an inspiring model for long-term partnerships and investment in minds, and that what has been achieved in the field of advanced materials reflects the transition of science from the stage of discovery to applications with a real impact, as this trend represents one of the most important transformations in the course of global scientific research.
The celebration program included honoring the President "Cactus"and Professor Omar Yaghi, to the winning research teams in the Artificial Intelligence Hackathon for Materials Discovery that I organized "Cactus" In partnership with the University of California Berkeley and Academy 32, where the NajdGenesis-Al team won first place for their project. "Najd Genesis Saudi Generative AI Platform to Create Hybrid Biomaterials for CO2 Capture Optimized for Real Industrial Conditions"The Fabricator.ai team won second place for their project "Overview of an artificial intelligence system capable of designing, re-engineering and manufacturing materials based on metal-organic and covalent frameworks"The Prime-MOF team came in third place for their project "Predicting the stability of metal-organic frameworks using large language models (LLMs) to support the discovery of sustainable materials"
At the conclusion of the celebration, Professor Omar Yaghi held a dialogue session with the gifted students and researchers, during which he reviewed stages of his scientific career and research experience, and shared with them a number of lessons and experiences that contributed to shaping his academic and professional career. He also provided a set of scientific and professional guidance to young researchers, stressing the importance of building a solid scientific foundation in the early stages, and investing in developing research skills, in a way that enhances their readiness to contribute to the process of research and innovation in the future.
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