George A Olah received the unshared Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1994 for his contributions to carbocation chemistry. Carbocations are the most important reaction intermediates in organic chemistry. Professor Olah discovered that in superacids (acids billions of times stronger than sulfuric acid) trivalent alkyl cations, and subsequently an ever-increasing number of all possible structural types of carbocations, could be prepared as stable entities and studied by a wide variety of spectroscopic, physical and chemical methods. His generalized concept of carbocations and activation of C-H and C-C single s-bonds by electrophiles opened up new areas of hydrocarbon chemistry. Professor Olah has received many honors and awards, including Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, ACS awards in Petroleum and Synthetic Chemistry, the Roger Adams Medal, California Scientist of the Year and many honorary Doctor of Science degrees. He is Loker Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute at the University of Southern California.