Professor G. K. Surya Prakash, Ph.D was born in 1953 in Bangalore, India. He earned a B.Sc (Hons) in chemistry from Bangalore University and an M.S. in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Prakash came to the US in 1974 and joined Professor George Olah's group at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio to pursue graduate work. He moved with Professor Olah to the University of Southern California (USC) in 1977 to help establish the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and obtained his Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry at USC in 1978. He joined the faculty of USC in 1981 and he is currently a Professor and the holder of the George A. and Judith A. Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and Department of Chemistry. He also serves as the Director of the Institute. His primary research interests are in superacid, hydrocarbon, synthetic organic & organofluorine chemistry, with particular emphasis in the areas of energy and catalysis. He is a co-inventor of the proton exchange membrane based direct oxidation methanol fuel cell. He has trained more than 100 doctoral and post-doctoral scholars. Professor Prakash is a prolific author with over 670 peer-reviewed scientific papers and holds more than 40 patents. He has also co-authored or edited 11 books. He has received many awards and accolades including.
American Chemical Society Awards: in 2004 for his achievements in the area of fluorine chemistry, in 2006 for his contributions to hydrocarbon chemistry and the 2006 Richard C. Tolman Award from the Southern California section of the American Chemical Society for his scientific contributions to Southern California. He received the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and the 2010 CRSI Medal from the Chemical Research Society of India. He is a fellow of the American Association of Advancement of Science, a Member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities and fellow of the European Academy of Sciences. He also sits on several Editorial Boards of Chemical Journals.