The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1994

George A. Olah

George Andrew Olah - Carbocations and Chemistry

George Andrew Olah was born May 22, 1927, in Budapest, Hungary, nine years after the close of World War I and two years before the Great Depression. His parents were Julius Olah and Magda Krasznai. He grew up during tumultuous years, which included World War II, when Hungary was again on the losing side of a war.

. The Olah family lived a middle-class life and Olah received his early education at a Catholic Gymnasium where he studied humanities and languages. He then attended the Technical University of Budapest. He chose a major in chemistry. The university followed a rigorous program where only the most successful students were allowed to remain. Small class sizes and an emphasis on achievement meant Olah received a good foundation for his research. After graduation, he became an unpaid research assistant to his professor, Geza Zemplen. Olah was interested in fluorine chemistry. He needed to pay for his own material and equipment. When the fumes from his projects became too noxious, Zemplen agreed to allocate space that included a balcony, so that the odors could be vented. Olah referred to this as his "balcony laboratory

In 1949, he married Judith Lengyel. They had known each other since childhood, and she was a secretary at the Technical University.

Since the Soviet approach to research favored research institutes rather than university settings, in 1954, Olah joined the Central Chemical Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and started a research project in organic chemistry. Also in 1954, his first son was born, George John.

The popular uprising in 1956 brought more unrest to Hungary. The Olahs, and 200,000 other Hungarians, left the country. The Olah family went first to London, then Montreal, then Sarnia, Ontario, where Olah worked for Dow Chemical. He rose to the title of company Scientist. His second son, Ronald Peter, was born in 1959. Olah began his work on carbocations at this time.

Olah transferred to the Dow facility in Massachusetts in 1964, and then joined the faculty at Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1965 as professor and department Chair. When the chemistry departments of Western Reserve University and Case Institute of Technology were merged in 1967, Olah served at Chair of the joint department until 1969 when he returned to research fulltime.

In 1976, he accepted an appointment to the University of Southern California at Los Angeles in the newly established Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, where he is currently Distinguished Professor and Loker Chair in Organic Chemistry.

Olah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994 for his research in carbocation chemistry and for uncovering new ways to use hydrocarbons in the

petroleum industry.. His current research involves converting excess carbon dioxide and methane into fuels and derivatives and a methanol fuel cell. Olah has authored over 1000 papers and 15 books, and he holds more than 100 patents. The George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry, formerly the ACS Award in Petroleum Chemistry, is awarded from an endowment initially funded by The Morris S. Smith Foundation and the Dow Chemical Company.

Olah's autobiography, written in 2000, is titled A Life of Magic Chemistry: Autobiographical Reflections of a Nobel Prize Winner.

Honors and Awards

1964, ASC, Petroleum Chemistry

1979, ASC, Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry

1989, Roger Adams Award in Organic Chemistry

1994, Nobel Prize in Chemistry

I was born in Budapest, Hungary, on May 22, 1927 the son of Julius Olah and Magda Krasznai My father was a lawyer and to my best knowledge nobody in my family before had interest in science. I grew up between the two world wars and received a rather solid general education, the kind middle class children enjoyed in a country whose educational system had its roots dating back to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. I attended a Gymnasium (a combination of junior and senior high school) at one of the best schools in Budapest run by the Piarist Fathers, a Roman Catholic order. A strict and demanding curriculum heavily emphasizing the humanities included 8 years of Latin, with German and French as other obligatory languages. Although we had an outstanding science teacher who later became a professor of physics in the University of Budapest I can not recollect any particular interest in chemistry during my school years. My main interest was in the humanities, particularly history, literature, etc. I was (and still am) and avid reader and believe that getting attached too early to a specific field frequently shortchanges a balanced broad education. Although reading the classics in Latin in school may be not as fulfilling as it would be at a more mature age, few scientists can afford the time for such diversion later in life.

After graduating from high school and having survived the ravages of war in Budapest and realizing the difficulties facing life in a small and war torn country, I started to study chemistry upon entering university, being attracted by the wide diversity it offered.

Classes at the Technical University of Budapest were relatively small. We probably started with a class of 70 or 80, whose numbers were rapidly pared down during the first year to maybe half by rather demanding "do or die" oral examinations, where the ones who failed could not continue. This was a rather cruel process, because laboratory facilities were so limited that only few could be accommodated. At the same time the laboratory training was thorough. For example, in the organic laboratory we did some 40 Gatterman preparations. It certainly gave a solid foundation.

Organic chemistry particularly intrigued me and I was fortunate later to become a research assistant to Professor Geza Zemplen, the senior professor of organic chemistry in Hungary, who himself was a student of Emil Fischer in Berlin. He established in Hungary a reputable school in organic chemistry. As Fischer, he too expected his students to pay their own way and even paying for the privilege to work in his laboratory. Becoming an assistant to him although meant no remuneration but also no fee. Zemplen had a formidable reputation, and working for him was quite an experience. He also liked partying and these remarkable events in neighboring pubs lasted frequently for days. Certainly one's stamina developed through these experiences.

Zemplen was a carbohydrate chemist, much interested in glycosides. Early in our association it became clear that my ideas and interest were not always closely matching his. When I suggested that fluorine containing carbohydrates may be of interest in coupling reactions, his reaction was not unexpectedly very negative. To try to pursue fluorine chemistry in post-war Hungary was indeed far fetched. Eventually, however, he gave in. Even basic chemicals needed for the work, such as HF, FSO3H or BF3 were non-existent and I made them myself, with enthusiastic help by some of my early associates (A. Pavlath, S. Kuhn). Laboratory space, particularly hoods (the kind exhausted only by draft caused by a gas burner causing warm air to raise and take some of the obnoxious fumes through a chimney) was very scarce and even by the time I became an assistant professor it was not welcome to "pollute" more important conventional work. However, the Institute which was on the second floor of the chemistry building, had in the back an open balcony, used to store chemicals. In one of his unexpected gestures Zemplen agreed that I can have the use of this balcony. With some effort we enclosed it, installed two old hoods and were soon in business in what was referred to as the "balcony laboratory". I am not sure that Zemplen even set foot in it. We enjoyed, however, our new quaters and the implicit understanding that our fluorine chemistry and related study of Friedel-Crafts reactions and their intermediates was now officially tolerated.

Some of my publications in the early 50s from Hungary caught the eye of Hans Meerwein. It is still a mystery to me how he came to read them in a Hungrian journal, although there also was a foreign language edition of the Hungarian Chimica Acta. Anyhow, I received an encouraging letter from him and we followed up correspondence (not easy at a time in completely isolated Hungary). He must have sympathized with my difficulties because one day through his efforts I received a cylinder of boron trifluoride. What a precious gift it was!

The Hungarian educational system after the Communist takeover was realigned according to the Soviet example. University research was deemphasized and research institutes were established under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences. I was invited to join the newly established Central Chemical Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1954 and was able to establish a small research group in organic chemistry, housed in temporary laboratories of an industrial research institute. With my group, which by now also included my wife, we were able to expand our work and made the best of our possibilities. In October 1956 Hungary revolted against the Soviet rule, but the uprising was soon put down by drastic measures and much loss of life. Budapest was again devastated and the future looked rather dim. In November-December 1956 some 200,000 Hungarians, mostly of the younger generation fled their country. With my family and much of my research group we also decided to follow this path and look for a new life in the West.

I married in 1949 Judith Lengyel, the best thing ever to happen to me in my life. We knew each other from our early youth and are happily married now for more than 45 years. Judy worked initially as a technical secretary at the Technical University. After we were married she enrolled to study chemistry. She probably rightly recalls that I was entirely responsible for this step and she only agreed to get along with her single minded husband who seemed to believe that there is little in life outside chemistry. From my point of view for husband and wife to closely understand each other's work and may even work together was most desirable. Our older son George John was born in Budapest in 1954. After we fled Hungary in early December of 1956, we reached late in December London where my wife had relatives. We subsequently moved on in the spring of 1957 to Canada, where my mother-in-law lived in Montreal after the war. During our stay in London for the first time I was able to establish personal contact with some of the organic chemists, whose work I knew and admired from the literature. I found them most gracious and helpful. In particular Christopher Ingold and Alexander Todd extended efforts on behalf of a young, practically unknown Hungarian refugee chemist in a way which I never forget and for which I am always grateful.

Dow Chemical, with its home base at Midland, Michigan was establishing at the time a small exploratory research laboratory 100 miles across the border in Sarnia, Ontario where its Canadian Subsidaries major operations were located. I was offered a position to join this new laboratory and they also hired two of my original Hungarian Collaborators, including Steven Kuhn. We moved to Sarnia in late May of 1957. As our moving expenses where paid we checked in two cardboard boxes containing all of our worldly possessions unto the train from Montreal and started our new life. Our younger son Ronald Peter was born in Sarnia in 1959. There was no possibility for Judy to continue her career at the time. Sacrificing her own career she devoted herself to bring up our children. She rejoined in our research only a decade later in Cleveland after I returned to academic life.

The Sarnia years at Dow were productive. It was during this period in the late 50's that my initial work on stable carbocations was started. Dow was and is a major user of carbocationic chemistry, such as the Friedel-Crafts type manufacture of etylbenzene for styrene production. My work thus also had practical significance and helped to improve some industrial processes. In return I was treated well and given substantial freedom to pursue my own ideas. Eventually I was promoted to company Scientist, the highest research position without administrative responsibility.

In the spring of '64 I transferred to Dow's Eastern Research Laboratories in Framingham, Massachusetts established under Fred McLarrerty's directorship. The laboratory was subsequently moved to Wayland, just outside Boston. In the summer of 1965 I was invited to join Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and returned to academic life as professor with the added responsibility of becoming also Department Chairman.

My Cleveland years were both scientifically and personally most rewarding. My wife Judy was able to rejoin me in our research and my research group grew rapidly. The chemistry departments of Western Reserve University and neighboring Case Institute of Technology were practically adjacent, separated only by a parking lot. It became obvious that it would make sense to join the two into a single, stronger department. We achieved this by 1967 with surprisingly little friction and I was asked to serve as the Chair of the joint department till things settled down. It was in 1969 that I was able to give up my administrative responsibility. As I worked hard my research never suffered during this period and as a matter of fact these were probably some of my most productive years.

After 12 years in Cleveland it was time again to move on. Our older son George was approaching the end of his college years and our younger son Ron who was finishing high school set his mind to go to Stanford. He convinced us that it should be nice for the whole family to resettle in California. Coincidentally, in the fall of 1976 Sid Benson, an old friend called me to find out whether I would be interested to join him at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. After some visits to LA the challenge of trying to build up chemistry in a dynamic university and the attractiveness of life in Southern California convinced us to move. We fell in love with California and we still are. As USC had limited chemistry facilities, it was offered to establish a research institute in the broad area of hydrocarbon research and provide it with its own building and facilities. We moved in May of 1977. Some 15 members of my research group joined the move West. By arrangements worked out we were able to take with us most of the laboratory equipment, chemicals, etc. Two weeks after our arrival with some large moving vans we were back doing chemistry in temporary quarters, while our research institute was constructed. The Institute was established at USC with generous support by Mr. & Mrs. D.P. Loker, friends and great supporters of the University. The Institute was subsequently named after them. Don Loker passed away some years ago, but Katherine still chairs the Institute's board. Through her and other friends' generosity a wonderful new addition to our Institute is just completed doubling our space.

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