Nobel Chemistry laureate Susumu Kitagawa visits National Central University, receives honorary master’s chair

Nobel Chemistry laureate Susumu Kitagawa took a seat created especially for him at Taiwan’s National Central University, where the university held a ceremony to unveil the honorary “master’s chair.”

Kitagawa, a professor and vice president of Kyoto University, visited the university at the invitation of the Global Alliance for Future Industrial-Academic Talent Development. He attended the 2026 MOF Taiwan international conference and delivered a keynote speech.

The Japanese scientist has spent years researching organic-inorganic hybrid compounds and porous coordination polymers. His work on metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, earned him the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Richard Robson of the University of Melbourne and Omar M. Yaghi of the University of California, Berkeley.

MOFs have specially designed porous structures that can serve different functions. Researchers are studying them for carbon capture, gas storage, water harvesting and drug delivery, as well as for applications linked to energy, the environment and sustainable development.

Conference chairman Hsieh Fa-kun, a professor in the university’s chemistry department, said Kitagawa has maintained close ties with Taiwan’s academic community. The conference, held over two days at the university, brings together scholars from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and the United States for keynote speeches, parallel sessions and poster presentations.

University president Hsiao Shu-san said the institution has created “master’s chairs” for years, engraving each one with the name of a distinguished scholar. The chairs are intended to let students and faculty encounter academic role models in daily campus life and encourage younger generations to “stand on the shoulders of giants” and see farther.

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Stand on the shoulders of giants and see higher and farther.