Hungarian-American Nobel laureate Oláh dies

Budapest, March 9 (MTI) – Hungarian-born American Nobel laureate chemist George (in Hungarian: György) Oláh has died, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences said on Thursday.

Oláh, who died in Beverly Hills at the age of 89, received the 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his contribution to carbocation chemistry”, the academy said.

Oláh was one of the founders of plastic industry and research in Hungary before emigrating after the 1956 revolution. He lived in Canada and the USA where he lectured at the University of South California. Much of his work focused on researching the possibilities of higher-octane petrol production. His work with superacids reacting with methane started a new era in plastic production.

Oláh was awarded a Szechenyi Grand Prize in Hungary in 2011.

Source: MTI