BRIEFLY : Chemistry: USC Honors Nobel Laureate
Nobel prize-winning chemist George Olah of Beverly Hills received an honorary degree at the University of Southern California commencement ceremony Friday.
Olah, a Beverly Hills resident who won the Nobel last year, left his native Hungary in 1957 in the wake of the Russian invasion. Currently director of the Donald B. and Katherine T. Loker Hydrocarbon Institute, Olah is the first USC faculty member to receive a Nobel prize.
His work has focused on finding ways to change the oil refining process to produce unleaded gasoline.
“We are rightly worried about the environment,” he said. “We need to come to an equilibrium between mankind’s needs and the environment to create newer, safer products.”
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