| 1 | Name: | Dr. George A. Olah | |
| Institution: | University of Southern California | ||
| Year Elected: | 2001 | ||
| Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1927 | ||
| Death Date: | March 8, 2017 | ||
George Olah was born (1927) and educated in Budapest, Hungary. He moved to America in 1957. In 1977 he became director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and Distinguished Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Southern California. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and a Foreign or Honorary Member of other Academies such as the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Canada, the Italian National Academy Lincei, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He received honorary doctoral degrees from several universities, including the University of Durham (England), the University of Munich, the Technical University of Budapest, the University of Crete, the University of Szeged and Veszprem (Hungary), the University of Southern California, Case Western Reserve University, New York State University, and the University of Montpellier (France). His contributions to superacid/carbocation chemistry and electrophilic chemistry of saturated hydrocarbons were singularly recognized with the 1994 undivided Nobel Prize in chemistry. Apart from the Nobel Prize, Olah's work was recognized with many honors and awards. He was the winner of the American Chemical Society's Award for Petroleum Chemistry, Creativity in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, the Roger Adams Medal, the Arthur C. Cope Award, and the Priestley Medal. He had published some 1,250 scientific papers, held 120 patents and authored or co-authored 20 books. George Olah died March 8, 2017, at age 89 in Beverly Hills, California. | |||