Melbourne professor among Nobel Prize chemistry winners

A University of Melbourne professor is among a trio of international scientists to win the Nobel chemistry prize for developing a new form of molecular architecture, yielding materials that can help tackle challenges such as climate change and lack of fresh water.

Richard Robson is a professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia, Susumu Kitagawa is a professor at Kyoto University in Japan, and Omar Yaghi is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.

The three laureates worked to create molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow and that can be utilised to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide or store toxic gases.

The academy said some of these materials had a remarkably large surface