Nobel chemistry laureate Omar Yaghi was born to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, a quiet, studious child in a “large, rowdy family” that shared a single room with cattle they raised.

Which made Wednesday’s news that the chemist at the University of California, Berkeley was among 2025’s class of Nobel winners all the more emotional, Yaghi told journalists as he heralded the US public school system he said he is a product of.

He also emphasized that publicly financed education and research have been key to his career, at a moment when US President Donald Trump is upending the long-standing funding structures that undergird the work of universities.

“This recognition is really a testament of the power of the public school system in the US that takes people like me with a major disadvantaged

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