George A. Olah, a Hungarian-American chemist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994. He was best known for his research that led to the isolation of carbocations (or carbonium ions), which are positively charged, electron-deficient fragments of hydrocarbons. He was also well-known for his work in the methanol economy. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he received the American Chemical Society’s Priestley Medal and F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research. He was born in the late 1920s in Budapest, Hungary, and grew up witnessing the horrors of World War I, which ravaged his country. When the 1956 Hungarian Revolution erupted, he was a young boy, and his family fled to England before settling in Canada. He began his pioneering work on carbocations after accepting a position as a research scientist at the Dow Chemical Company in Canada. He moved to academics with a position at Case Western Reserve University after several years working in the chemical industry, where he also assisted in the improvement of some industrial processes. He eventually became a professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he eventually became the director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. Despite the fact that he had begun his groundbreaking research decades before, it was only in the 1990s that he received widespread international acclaim for his work.
Childhood and Adolescence
George Andrew Olah was born on May 22, 1927, as Oláh György, to Magda (Krasznai) and Julius Oláh, a lawyer, in Budapest, Hungary. He had a typical middle-class upbringing and went to one of Budapest’s best schools, Budapesti Piarista Gimnazium, for his Gymnasium (a combination of junior and senior high school) (Scolopi fathers).
He was more interested in history and the humanities as a child than in science. Despite completing high school in the midst of a politically chaotic and violent environment, his school years were marred by the war that ravaged the country.
He enrolled at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics to study chemistry after developing an interest in the subject during his high school years. Organic chemistry piqued his interest in particular.
Professor Geza Zemplen, a senior professor of organic chemistry who had established a reputable school in Hungary, later hired him as a research assistant. Working with Zemplen was a rewarding experience for Olah.
Career of George
He graduated from Budapest University of Technology and Economics with a doctorate in 1949 and taught there until 1954. In 1954, he was invited to join the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ newly established Central Chemical Research Institute.
Around the same time, he was able to form a small organic chemistry research group, which was housed in temporary laboratories of an industrial research institute. The research team was doing well until a political situation hampered their progress.
Hungary rose up against Soviet rule in October 1956, and the revolution proved to be a violent and turbulent one. There was a great deal of bloodshed and deaths, and Budapest was left devastated by the political upheavals.
Thousands of Hungarians, including Olah and his family, fled their homeland in search of a better life in the West in such a dire situation.
He spent some time in England before moving to Canada in 1957 to work as a research scientist for the Dow Chemical Company. Steven Kuhn, one of Olah’s original Hungarian Collaborators, was also hired by the company.
During his time at Dow, he began his groundbreaking work on carbocations. Dow was a big fan of carbocationic chemistry, and Olah’s work had a lot of practical applications and helped to improve some industrial processes.
He was transferred to Dow’s Eastern Research Laboratories in Framingham in 1964 and continued his work there. In 1965, he changed jobs, becoming a professor at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also served as the Department Chairman.
In 1977, George A. Olah transferred to the University of Southern California, where he eventually became the director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute in 1980. He has shifted his research focus from hydrocarbons and their transformation into fuel to the methanol economy in recent years.
The George A. Olah Endowment, established in his honor by the Olah family, awards annual awards to outstanding chemists. The awards are chosen and administered by the American Chemical Society.
Major Projects of George
George A. Olah, best known for his work on carbocations, used superacids and ultracold solvents to isolate the positively charged, electron-deficient fragments of hydrocarbons (carbocations or carbonium ions). His groundbreaking research paved the way for the creation of a new branch of organic chemistry.
Achievements & Awards
“For his contribution to carbocation chemistry,” George A. Olah received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994. The Arthur C. Cope Award was bestowed upon him in 2001.
Olah received the Priestley Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Chemical Society (ACS) for distinguished service in the field of chemistry, in 2005.
Personal History and Legacy
In 1949, he married Judith Lengyel and they had two sons, George (born in Hungary in 1954) and Ronald (born in the United States) (born in the U.S. in 1959).
On March 8, 2017, George Andrew Olah died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, USA.
Estimated Net Worth
George Andrew Olah’s net worth, salary, and way of life. George Andrew Olah’s estimated net worth is $ USD 1 million, according to online sources (Wikipedia, Google Search, Yahoo Search). His primary source of income is as a university teacher and chemist.