Omar Yaghi: Berkeley → Tsinghua

1:28:52listeners of the pod who've been listening to us for a while will know very well. Omar Yagi, the founder of Reticular Chemistry, most well known for metal organic frameworks, transferring from UC Berkeley to Singa University in Beijing, already there July 2026 on the free Nobel Prize winner in chemistry in 2025. He was born in Aman, Jordan, moved to the US at 15. uh did his PhD at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champagne, Harvard postocck, then Arizona State, Michigan, UCLA, a great tour uh and in 2012 he was a treader chair at Berkeley plus spent some time at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the

1:29:33pioneer >> of metal organic frameworks, moths, the idea, these crystal cages with absurd surface area. We did a deep dive in our Nobel Prize episode coverage last year. So if you really want to know more about it, uh take a look. These can be used for things like carbon capture, gas storage, water from desert air. Uh the Nobel committee compared them to Hermione's handbag in Harry Potter. >> Yeah, >> very clever visual reference. He named the field reticular chemistry. I mean, what are your thoughts about this type of talent particularly from the

1:30:13state of California? >> Yeah. [clears throat] I mean, um, this I think is probably a direct response to our science policies, I have to say. Um, it hasn't been said explicitly, but I think Singua University gave him an offer that he couldn't refuse, like insane amounts of funding. I think all of his students could like go with him effectively. Um, this is a man who's a legend in the field. This is a man that was such a legend that I could call him as my one of my top picks to win the chemistry Nobel. Right. That's how obvious it was that he was going to win the chemistry Nobel. He's had a tour, as you were

1:30:54saying, from Arizona um from Arizona State University to then UCLA to Berkeley. All of these institutions poached him from the last institution because they knew he was going to win the Nobel. Um and now that he's won the Nobel, his his clout has gone up a whole lot. um metal organic frameworks are the chemicals of the future in terms of um water storage, carbon capture as you were saying, lots of industrial applications. Um and it's it's a huge loss I think to to us. Um he himself has criticized grant pressure and visas, right? He's an international student at in he started his life as an

1:31:35international student. So he knows exactly how important it is for American science to hold that edge with the international community. So the fact that he's leaving, yeah, I think um he probably saw the writing on the wall and to him his research was more important than um you know where he was doing the research. >> A seasoned trophy winner. >> Yeah. >> 13 trophies. Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 2017, Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 2018, the Balsan Prize in 2024, just to name a few along with the Nobel. This is not a mid-table signing. This would be like uh Balandor winner in

1:32:172025, Usman Dembele moving from PSG right now, which just won the Champions League and is choosing to go to, you know, Chinese Super League or Saudi. Yeah. Right now, right? like in terms of the how >> crazy um it would be to see happen. Um >> he has been an honorary professor at Singa since 2022. Uh he started full-time on July 3rd to lead their new scientific discipline that was pioneered by Yagi combining AI material science and chemistry to design and synthesize advanced materials. The idea being uh can we compress the timeline of

1:32:58materials discovery given our new tools. If there was ever a man to do it, he will. And as a place that's trying to onshore manufacture manufacturing and really own this idea of AI enabled in the physical world, it's not ideal. Um he did criticize the US for granting visas. He hasn't drawn a clear line that that's what caused this move. So, you know, it's kind of ambiguous but >> you know, Singa gave him a bigger sandbox and he took it. That's our first big transfer of the summer marquee signing for China. We're going to move to our second bigname signing, Shirley

1:33:41Mang, who is going to be our pioneer in batteries and energy storage. this idea of next generation battery materials University of Chicago uh by and she's