THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410130467
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
An American and a Canadian who developed a method for studying the building blocks of matter won the Nobel physics prize Wednesday, and an American whose research led to more efficient, cleaner fuel won the chemistry prize.
The physics prize will be shared by Clifford G. Shull of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bertram N. Brockhouse of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Both researchers, pioneers in the field of neutron scattering, developed neutron spectroscopy, a method of studying atoms.
The sole winner of the $930,000 award for chemisty was George A. Olah, 67, of the University of California in Los Angeles.
Olah revolutionized the study of hydrocarbons, the ingredients of oil and natural gas, and uncovered new ways to use them.
In the early 1960s, he and his colleagues discovered that extremely strong acids could be used to modify hydrocarbons so they were easier to study.
``His work . . . has a prominent position in all modern textbooks,'' the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
It has allowed improvements in combustion engines by raising the octane of fuel without adding to pollution, the academy said.
It also has led to plastics and other petroleum-based products made with less harm to the environment.
Olah, who was born in Hungary, has 85 patents from seven countries, including four for the transformation of natural gas into the hydrocarbons used in gasoline.
Brockhouse, 76, and Shull, 79, carried out their research in the years following World War II at some of the first nuclear reactors.
KEYWORDS: NOBEL PRIZE by CNB