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George Andrew Olah (born May 22, 1927) is a Hungarian-born American chemist. He was significant in stabilizing and in studying carbocations. He won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994. In 2005 he was awarded the Priestley Medal, the highest honor granted by the American Chemical Society

Olah studied, then taught at what is now Budapest University of Technology and Economics. 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. Olah's pioneering work on carbocations started during his eight years with Dow. In 1965 he returned to academia at Case Western Reserve University and then to 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. His book "The Methanol Economy" will be published in March 2006.

References

• George A. Olah, Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy, Angewandte Chemie International Edition Volume 44, Issue 18 , Pages 2636 - 2639, 2005
• his contribution to carbocation chemistry.

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