Background
Olah was born in Budapest, Hungary, on May 22, 1927, to Magda (Krasznai) and Julius Oláh, a lawyer
chemist scientist university professor
Olah was born in Budapest, Hungary, on May 22, 1927, to Magda (Krasznai) and Julius Oláh, a lawyer
After the high school of Budapesti Piarista Gimnazium (Scolopi fathers), he studied, then taught, at what is now Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
His research involves the generation and reactivity of carbocations via superacids. As a result of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he and his family moved briefly to England and then to Canada, where he joined Dow Chemical in Sarnia, Ontario, with another Hungarian chemist, Stephen J. Kuhn. Olah"s pioneering work on carbocations started during his eight years with Dowager
In 1965 he returned to academia at Case Western Reserve University and then to the University of Southern California in 1977.
In 1971, Olah became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Olah is currently a distinguished professor at the University of Southern California and the director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute.
In 2005, Olah wrote an essay promoting the methanol economy. The Olah family formed an endowment fund (the George A Olah Endowment) which grants annual awards to outstanding chemists.
The awards are selected and administered by the American Chemical Society.
The search for stable carbocations led to the discovery of protonated methane which was stabilized by superacids, like FSO3H-SbF5 ("Magic Acid"). CH4 + H+ → CH5+ Olah was also involved in a career-long battle with Herbert C. Brown of Purdue over the existence of so-called "nonclassical" carbocations – such as the norbornyl cation, which can be depicted as cationic character delocalized over several bonds. In recent years, his research has shifted from hydrocarbons and their transformation into fuel to the methanol economy.
He has joined with Robert Zubrin, Anne Korin, and James Woolsey in promoting a flexible-fuel mandate initiative.
1970 American College of Surgeons Henry Morley Medal A.
Royal Society; Lincean Academy. National Academy of Sciences. Hungarian Academy of Sciences]
1997 Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1997.