Part 1
Nobel Week 2025 is the main international scientific and cultural event of the autumn season, during which the laureates of one of the world’s most prestigious awards are announced.
Established by the will of Swedish inventor and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel, the prizes are awarded annually for outstanding contributions to science, literature, and the promotion of peace. Every October, global attention turns to Stockholm and Oslo, where the names of new laureates are revealed – scientists, writers, and public figures whose discoveries and ideas change humanity.
For the first time, Nazarbayev University is launching its own project as part of Nobel Week: NU professors will explain the essence of the laureates’ discoveries and ideas in accessible terms, highlighting their significance for society and the future of science.
The Nobel laureates will be announced on the following dates:
• October 6 — Physiology or Medicine
• October 7 — Physics
• October 8 — Chemistry
• October 9 — Literature
• October 10 — Peace Prize
• October 13 — the Prize in Economic Sciences
NU brings together leading scholars across seven schools, covering a wide range of disciplines — from natural, engineering, and medical sciences to social, human, and business studies. Through this interdisciplinary approach, NU serves as a source of expert knowledge, bridging fundamental research and public education. The goal of the project is to explain Nobel discoveries clearly and engagingly, to show how they impact people’s lives, and to inspire broader interest in science.
So, let’s begin. The expert commentaries from NU professors are presented in reverse chronological order — from the most recent Nobel announcements to the first. Part 1 covers the prizes in Medicine, Chemistry, and Physics, while Part 2 features reflections on the awards in Literature, Peace, and Economics.
October 8 – Chemistry
The next speaker is Dr. Mannix P. Balanay, Associate Professor and PhD in Chemistry Program Director. He explains the scientific significance of the discovery recognized by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and how it advances our understanding of matter at the molecular level.
Revolutionizing Chemistry: The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Honors Pioneers of Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs)
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Prof. Susumu Kitagawa (Kyoto University, Japan), Prof. Richard Robson (University of Melbourne, Australia), and Prof. Omar M. Yaghi (University of California, Berkeley, USA) for their groundbreaking work on a class of materials called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). These materials are like microscopic sponges made of metal atoms connected by organic molecules, forming structures with tiny pores inside. What makes MOFs special is that these pores can be designed to trap, store, or interact with specific substances. Despite being extremely light, some MOFs have such a vast internal surface area that a single gram could cover an entire football field if spread out flat.
MOFs have many practical uses that affect our daily lives and the future of our planet. In clean energy, MOFs can store gases like hydrogen and methane, which are being explored as alternatives to fossil fuels. They are also very good at capturing carbon dioxide from the air or industrial emissions, making them useful in the fight against climate change. In medicine, MOFs can carry drugs and release them slowly at targeted areas in the body, which helps improve treatment and reduce side effects.
They are also being used in sensitive sensors to detect diseases, harmful chemicals, or environmental toxins. In industry, MOFs help speed up chemical reactions in a more energy-efficient way, which is useful in making everything from medicines to fuels. They’re also being explored for use in batteries, solar energy systems, and water purification. Researchers are combining MOFs with other materials to make them stronger and more durable, and some are even printing them onto tiny devices for electronics and sensors.
One of the most impressive things about MOFs is how they have brought together scientists from many different fields such as chemists, engineers, physicists, and medical researchers to create real solutions to global problems. Although challenges like cost and long-term stability remain, the potential of MOFs is enormous. They are still a young technology, but their applications are growing rapidly.
Each scientist played a key role in developing MOFs. Prof. Kitagawa pioneered flexible MOFs that could respond to their environment, demonstrating gas flow and flexibility in these structures. Prof. Robson helped establish early three-dimensional coordination polymers that inspired the development of complex MOF architectures. Prof. Yaghi introduced a systematic method called “reticular chemistry” to design and construct thousands of MOF structures through strong molecular bonds. His approach helped turn MOFs into one of the most exciting and rapidly advancing fields in materials research today.
By recognizing the work of Prof. Kitagawa, Prof. Robson, and Prof. Yaghi, the Nobel Committee has highlighted not just a scientific discovery, but a powerful new way of designing materials to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, like clean energy, climate change, healthcare, and environmental protection. The development of MOFs marks a major shift in how we think about materials science and shows how chemistry can be used to build a more sustainable and advanced future.
October 7 — Physics
The next speaker is Professor Sergey Bubin from the Department of Physics, School of Sciences and Humanities at Nazarbayev University. He comments on the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics, explaining the essence of the groundbreaking discovery and its significance for understanding the fundamental laws of nature.
Quantum Effects, Macroscopic Scale, and the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics
Quantum mechanics is famously weird. As Richard Feynman once remarked, “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.” Indeed, the behavior of quantum particles often defies our intuition shaped by everyday experience. Consider, for instance, that a particle confined in a potential well can only possess certain discrete energy levels; that a particle can tunnel through a potential barrier (a wall) it should not classically cross; or that two particles can remain mysteriously entangled no matter how far apart they are. Such phenomena, though fundamental, are normally confined to the microscopic world of atoms, molecules, and nuclei — systems invisible to the naked eye and composed of only a handful of particles. We certainly do not see people walking through walls in daily life.
A longstanding question in physics has been whether quantum behavior can manifest at the macroscopic scale – how large a system can get and still exhibit distinct quantum properties. This question traces back to the early days of quantum theory and Schrödinger’s famous cat – a thought experiment illustrating the absurdity of a system that is both dead and alive at once.
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics honors John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis for pioneering experiments, conducted from the 1980s through the 2020s, that demonstrated unmistakable quantum phenomena – tunneling and quantized energy levels – in systems large enough to hold in one’s hand. They showed that under special conditions, a macroscopic number of charged particles moving through an electrical circuit could behave collectively as if they were a single quantum particle spanning the entire circuit.
In their experiments, the system was prepared in a state where electric current flowed with zero voltage – a classically stable configuration, trapped as if behind an energy barrier. Remarkably, the system revealed its quantum nature by tunneling through that barrier, spontaneously switching to a finite-voltage state. This transition could be directly detected through the appearance of a measurable voltage. Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis also confirmed that the system obeyed the strict rules of quantum mechanics: its energy was quantized, meaning it could absorb or emit only discrete packets of energy.
Before these breakthroughs, macroscopic quantum phenomena were known only in collective effects such as superconductivity, superfluidity, flux quantization, and the Josephson effect. Although often labeled “macroscopic quantum phenomena,” these effects are emergent manifestations of classical order arising from the coordinated behavior of many microscopic particles. In contrast, the systems studied by Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis displayed a genuinely collective quantum state — one where many particles act together as a single quantum entity.
Their groundbreaking experiments laid the foundation for the modern fields of quantum sensing, quantum information processing, and quantum computation. The superconducting qubits they helped create now form the backbone of some of today’s quantum computer prototypes. Thanks to their pioneering works, the dream of scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computing — once thought impossible — now appears to be within reach.
October 6, 2025 – Medicine
The first speaker was Professor Antonio Sarria-Santamera, Acting Dean of the School of Medicine at NU. He explains why the discovery in immunology, recognized by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, became a turning point for science and medicine.
The award of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their work on peripheral immune tolerance marks a milestone in immunology by deepening our mechanistic understanding of how the immune system restrains itself to avoid attacking healthy tissue.
The immune system is the body’s natural defense system. It protects us from infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and other harmful agents. It does this through a complex army of cells and molecules that can recognize what belongs to the body (“self”) and what is foreign (“non-self”).
However, for this system to work properly, it must be precisely regulated. If it becomes too weak, infections and cancers can spread unchecked. If it becomes too active, the immune system can mistakenly attack the body’s own tissues, leading to autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, or multiple sclerosis.
Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi have discovered how the immune system prevents these self-attacks. They identified special cells called regulatory T cells (Tregs) and a key gene, FOXP3, that act as peacekeepers within the immune system, and ensure that immune responses are strong enough to fight infection—but restrained enough to avoid damaging the body itself.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Sakaguchi was the first to identify these regulatory T cells in mice, showing they could suppress harmful immune reactions. His work revealed that Tregs express a unique protein called Foxp3, which is essentially their “ID badge”. Without it, immune tolerance collapses, leading to autoimmune diseases. This discovery proved that Tregs are active suppressors of inflammation.
Building on Sakaguchi’s findings, Brunkow and Ramsdell delved into human genetics. They identified mutations in the FOXP3 gene that cause a rare but devastating disorder called IPEX syndrome, where boys suffer from severe autoimmune attacks on their own intestines, skin, and endocrine system shortly after birth. Their research connected the dots between faulty Tregs and real-world diseases, showing that without functional regulatory T cells, the immune system runs amok. This genetic insight opened doors to potential therapies, like gene editing or drugs that boost Treg activity.
Autoimmune diseases affect over 10% of the global population, with no cures, only symptom management through anti-inflammatory drugs or immunosuppressants that leave patients vulnerable to infections. The Nobel winners’ discoveries are paving the way for smarter, more targeted fixes:
- Early trials for type 1 diabetes and lupus show promise in halting disease progression without broadly weakening the immune system.
- By mimicking Treg signals, new drugs could train the immune system to ignore allergens like dust mites or peanuts, potentially reducing the need for lifelong antihistamines.
- Tregs can be harnessed to prevent organ rejection post-transplant or to fine-tune immunotherapy, where the immune system is unleashed against tumors without collateral damage.
- During pregnancy, Tregs help the mother’s immune system tolerate the genetically distinct fetus, preventing miscarriage. Understanding this could improve fertility treatments.
As the Nobel Committee underlined, these findings “have opened up new avenues for developing therapies against autoimmune diseases, allergies, and cancer,” underscoring their broad impact.
