Olah's 70th birthday draws a devoted crowd
G
eorge Olah was no ordinary adviser, recalls Ripudaman Malhotra, one of his former graduate students. When Olah won the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry in 1979, the University of Southern California chemistry professor used the prize money to send his students and postdoctoral researchers on a vacation to Hawaii. Such acts of generosity epitomize Olah's character, says Malhotra, now director of the organic materials and energy department at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, Calif. Along with more than 230 scientists from all reaches of the globe, most of them former Olah students and postdoctoral associates, Malhotra came to Los Angeles last month to celebrate the esteemed chemist's 70th birthday, as well as the 20th anniversary of Olah's academic homestead, USC's Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. Longtime friends and colleagues toasted Olah at a banquet in his honor. "I would prefer that this were my 25 th birthday," Olah quipped. Participants also honored Katherine B. Loker, who, with her husband, the late Donald P. Loker, donated the funds to build the institute. In its 20 years, the Loker Institute has graduated more than 300 Ph.D.s from five continents and produced some 1,000 research papers. Thanks to another grant from Loker, the institute recently opened a new wing that includes additional laboratories and a new library. The celebration included a two-day symposium, dubbed "New Horizons in Chemistry." G. K. Surya Prakash, who holds the Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry at Loker, assembled a wide variety of talks ranging from the chemistry of fluorine to polymers, and, of course, hydrocarbons. Olah maintains an affable and accessi-
ble persona, his colleagues said, despite having won many awards, most notably the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994. He's frequently referred to as one of the greatest scientists in the field of hydrocarbon chemistry. Before their talks, the speakers expressed warm wishes to Olah and spoke fondly of their previous years with his group.
large and international Olah family—and I'm always happy to get the opportunity to come back home." Although many of the talks dealt with hydrocarbon research, Olah's "children" have branched out into myriad fields: polymers, combinatorial chemistry, chemical sensors, and more. For example, Prakash spoke on the synthesis of new perfluoroalkylation reagents. Posters at an evening session covered
such topics as the functionalization of polystyrene nanospheres, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies of nitropyrenes in superacids, and syntheses of novel trifluoromethylated compounds. Loker graduate student Anthony R. Atti demonstrated methanol fuel-cell technology that was patented last Olah (top right photo) addressed attendees of his birthday February. celebration, and later toasted the occasion with Loker (top left photo). USC graduate student Anjana Mitra and Jean Sommer, of Prakash (bottom photo) were among those who participated Louis Pasteur Univerin the festivities. sity in Strasbourg, France, who spoke "It was 12 years ago that I was a post- on the role of carbon monoxide in aciddoc at the Loker Institute," said Rainer and superacid-catalyzed alkane activation, Herges of Technical University of Braun- still visits the Loker Institute once or twice schweig, in Braunschweig, Germany, a year. "I was George Olah's first French who spoke on his method of synthesiz- postdoctoral researcher—it's a very speing tubular aromatics. "From that time cial label," he said with a smile. on, I've felt that I'm a member of the Elizabeth Wilson DECEMBER 22, 1997 C&EN 43
