Jonathan de Roo: The Nobel Prize rec- ognizes pioneering achievements – but research into MOFs is far from over. There are many fundamental questions that remain unanswered: What role do defects play? Are amorphous frameworks per- haps better than crystalline ones? How can stability be further improved? In short, there is still a lot to discover. For young researchers, this is an exciting field with great potential – both for basic research and for applications. Jonathan De Roo has been an as- sociate professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Basel since 2024. He studied chem- istry at Ghent University and earned his doctorate with a thesis on the surface chemistry of metal oxide nanocrystals. As a postdoctoral re- searcher at Columbia University (USA), he investigated crystalliza- tion mechanisms and tailor-made ligands. He continued this research in Basel when he took up a ten- ure-track assistant professorship in 2019 and began to build up his own research group, “Nanomaterials for Society.” His research focuses on the de- velopment and surface chemistry of nanomaterials, in particular metal oxide clusters, MOFs and nanocrystals, with applications in catalysis and environmental reme- diation. Different MOFs and their applications (Image: © Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Jonathan de Roo Further information: Research group de Roo Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 6 SNI INSight December 2025