Michael O’Keeffe was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, on the 3rd April, 1934.
He spent 1958-1959 at Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium (group of Evert W. Gorter) then did postdoctoral research at Indiana University (mentor Walter J. Moore).
In collaboration with Omar Yaghi, O’Keeffe developed reticular chemistry, a new branch of chemistry that links molecular fragments of well-defined shapes with strong bonds to build symmetrical open structures such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) Together with Olaf Delgado-Friedrichs, he has developed the Reticular Chemistry Structure Resource (RCSR)[1] a compendium of structures relevant to design of materials on the molecular level.
O'Keeffe has published three books, including one of the standard monographs on periodic structures,[2] and more than 300 refereed papers.
His work is highly cited (over 100,000 citations and h index over 100), and he was third in the Clarivate#Highly Cited Researchers list of Top 100 Chemists, 2000-2010[3] Among his honors are: the 2019 Gregori Aminoff Prize (Royal Swedish Academy);[4][5] the Bernal Distinguished Lecturer, University of Limerick, 2017; the World Class Professorship, KAIST, Korea, 2013; Newcomb Cleveland Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007; Regents' Professor, Arizona State University 1994; and D. Sc.