About

Surya G K Prakash

George A. and Judith A. Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry and Professor of Chemistry

Contact Information
E-mail: gprakash@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-5984
Office: LHI 103

LINKS
Faculty Profile on Departmental Website
 

Biographical Sketch
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 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 Scientific Co-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. Professor Prakash is a prolific author with more than 560 peer-reviewed scientific papers and holds 21 patents. He has also co-authored or edited 8 books. He has received many awards and accolades including two American Chemical Society National Awards: 2004 for his achievements in the area of fluorine chemistry and 2006 for his contributions to hydrocarbon chemistry. More recently, he has received the 2006 Richard C. Tolman Award from the Southern California section of the American Chemical Society for his scientific contributions to Southern California and the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. He is a fellow of the American Association of Advancement of Science and a Member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities. He also sits on several Editorial Boards of Chemical Journals.
 

Education
B.S. , Bangalore University, India, 1/1972
M.S. , I.I.T., Madras, India, 1/1974
Ph.D. , University of Southern California, 1/1978
 

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
Since 1989, Prakash has worked with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/Caltech to develop the methanol fuel cell as part of a project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. He has engineered a membrane that blocks methanol; representing a major break-through in terms of commercializing the methanol fuel-cell technology. His work has many practical applications. For instance, Toshiba is currently working on building a laptop powered by the technology.
 

Research Specialties
Professor Prakash and his group's research interests are in the area of Synthetic Organic, Mechanistic and Hydrocarbon chemistry related to energy. Our projects cover a wide range of subjects in the area of selective fluorinations, oxidations, energetic materials, reductions, stereoselective reactions, electrochemical synthesis, hydrocarbon activation and isomerization, direct oxidation fuel cells, lithium ion battery electrolytes, electrochemistry, polymer chemistry, superacid catalyzed reactions, stable carbocation chemistry, application of ab initio and DFT theory and NMR chemical shift calculations. Our group also utilizes extensively all the modern spectroscopic and analytical tools in organic structure characterization as well as in mechanistic studies.
 

Publications

Journal Article
Prakash, S. G., Chacko, S. (2008). Novel nucleophilic and electrophilic fluoroalkylation methods. CURRENT OPINION IN DRUG DISCOVERY & DEVELOPMENT. Vol. 11 (6), pp. 793-802.
Olah, G. A., Prakash, S. G., Rasul, G. (2008). An initio/GIAO-CCSD(T) study of structures, energies, and C-13 NMR chemical shifts of C4H7+ and C5H9+ ions: Relative stability and dynamic aspects of the cyclopropylcarbinyl vs bicyclobutonium ions. Journal of the American Chemical Society. Vol. 130, pp. 9168-9172.
Prakash, S. G., Lednecki, I., Chacko, S., Olah, G. A. (2008). Direct electrophilic monofluoromethylation. Organic Letters. Vol. 10, pp. 557-560.
Prakash, S. G., Hu, J. (2007). Selective fluoroalkylations with fluorinated sulfones, sulfoxides, and Sulfides. Accounts of Chemical Research. Vol. 40, pp. 921-930.
Prakash, G., Chacko, S., Alconcel, S., Stewart, T., Mathew, T., Olah, G. (2007). Stereoselective monofluoromethylation of primary and secondary alcohols by using a fluorocarbon nucleophile in a mitsunobu reaction. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. Vol. 46 (26), pp. 4933-4936.
Prakash, S. G., Weber, C., Chacko, S., Olah, G. (2007). New electrophilic difluoromethylating reagent. Organic Letters. Vol. 9 (10), pp. 1863-1866.
Prakash, S. G., Mathew, T., Panja, C., Vaghoo, H., Venkataraman, K., Olah, G. (2007). Efficient synthesis of fluorinated bezimidazolines, benzothiazolines, bezoxazolines and dihydrobezoxazinones using gallium (II) triflate as a catalyst. Organic Letters. Vol. 9 (2), pp. 179-182.
 

Honors and Awards
Endowed Chair, George A. and Judith A. Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry, 1/1/1997-  
Professor K. Venkataraman Lecturer, 2008-2009, University Department of Chemical Technolgy, University of Mubai, India., 2008-2009  
Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, 2006-2007   
George A. Olah Annual Lecturer, 2006-2007   
Richard C. Tolman Award, Southern California Section of American Chemical Society, 2006-2007   
American Chemical Society George A. Olah National Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry, 2005-2006   
Fellow of the American Association of Advancement of Science , 2005-2006   
NASA Space Act Board Award, New Fuels For Direct Oxidation Fuel Cells, 2004-2005   
American Chemical Society National Award for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry, 2003-2004   
USC Associates Award For Creativity In Research And Scholarship, 2000  
JPL/TAP Group Achievement Award for Low Crossover Membranes for Methanol Fuel Cells, 1998-1999   
Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award for Research and Scholarship, 1983-1984   
 

Service to the University

Administrative Appointments
Scientific Co-Director, Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, 2008-2011  
 
 
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