Libyan researcher and academic confirms his discovery of the concept of “network chemistry” before the scientists awarded this year’s Nobel Prize.

Tripoli, December 8, 2025 – A Libyan researcher and academic has accused the Nobel Prize committee of violating scientific and ethical standards by awarding this year’s prize in Chemistry to three scientists for developing and establishing a “new concept” called reticular chemistry. He claims he preceded them in this concept by years and that his doctoral thesis was on the same subject.

In a statement, he said he was years ahead of these scientists and that his doctoral thesis, which he received with honors from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, was on the same topic. It is published and documented on several well-known global platforms such as Springer publishing house, Google Scholar, and the publications of the Institute of Isotopes in Budapest. He pointed out that these publications prove that his thesis and published work addressed the same subject, goal, and idea long before them. The goals and results of his experiments were to contribute to enhancing material capacity in the field of purification and separation, which in materials science is called a “discovery,” not merely an application, and is termed an “innovation.” This grants what is known as “scientific precedence.”

According to the researcher, in the interest of scientific integrity, his contribution and research results existed and were published before the birth of this scientific field. He stated he was ahead of them by stages and no one can overlook this fact, which is the justification the Nobel committee relied on in its award statement. He emphasized that the foundations for which the prize was awarded and the essence of the innovation he presented are the same as the essence of the prize award.

He added that what happened is strange, inconsistent with the spirit of science, contrary to scientific standards and research rigor, and undermines scientific credibility. The material upon which these “scientists” built their studies, “Zirconium,” is the same material he studied, researched, developed some of its compounds, increased its efficiency, and innovated new methods to enhance its effectiveness. He noted that compounds of this very material were the title of his thesis, as documented and established.

He confirmed that he published 13 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals in the Netherlands, Britain, and Hungary under the supervision of his late thesis supervisor, who conducted the practical part and experiments in the laboratories of the “Institute of Isotopes” in Budapest, part of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences which granted him his doctorate. He said awarding the prize to these scientists constitutes disregard for the efforts of other parties, a breach of the principle of scientific priority and reference protocol, representing an infringement of rights, an overlooking of prior efforts, and a disregard for scientific standards. He clarified that the reasons for awarding the prize align and correspond with the objectives of his thesis.

He continued that the results he reached were documented scientific precedence and a foundational building block in establishing the science of “reticular chemistry.” He affirmed that awarding the prize this year violated the standards upon which competition, innovation, and evaluation criteria are based, in the simplest terms. He noted that this matter has caused great harm to him, the University of Tripoli, educational institutions, and the Libyan people, as the Nobel Prize is considered an indicator of the academic and scientific level of universities and countries.

He demanded recognition and restitution for his research based on official documents and documented analytical data, which state that this work is not merely a passing endeavor but a realized Libyan scientific contribution meeting the conditions of scientific research. He expressed his congratulations to the Nobel Prize winners for their achievements, while affirming his full respect for the prize committee and its historical trajectory.

He said his case is not against anyone, nor does it aim to detract from any researcher. He demanded recognition of the scientific precedence of his work, which he began in the late 1980s and published in the early 1990s, using FTIR, XRD, and thermal analysis to study the crystalline structure of zirconium and phosphates and their properties. These are the scientific foundations upon which the field of MOFs was later built, which has today become a giant industrial sector.

He explained that the concept of “reticular chemistry” or “Reticular Chemistry” in simplified terms is the development of porous materials with a network structure. This is the same goal and purpose of his scientific study related to studying the molecular structure of metal-organic frameworks, or so-called MOFs (an abbreviation for Metal-Organic Frameworks). These are materials used as small “sites or anchor points” within the structure of some materials that can capture, trap, and store unwanted molecules. He indicated that this opens horizons for applications in purification and separation, such as gas purification, impurity separation, air purification from carbon dioxide, reducing environmental pollution, treating plastic pollution, separating compounds, energy storage, dialysis,