Kitagawa Urges Long-Term Scientific Funding Ahead of Nobel Prize Award Ceremony

By Naomi Nagao / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

16:16 JST, December 8, 2025

STOCKHOLM — Susumu Kitagawa, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year, spoke about the importance of supporting long-term scientific research on Sunday in Stockholm.

Kitagawa, a distinguished professor at Kyoto University, has been working on developing new porous materials called “metal-organic frameworks” for a long time.

“[For a scientific] achievement to be transferred to society, it takes 25 years,” he said at a press conference held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences attended by recipients of the Chemistry, Physics and Economics prizes.

Kitagawa will attend the Nobel Prize award ceremony on Wednesday (early Thursday morning Japan time) along with University of Osaka honorary distinguished professor Shimon Sakaguchi, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.