George Olah, a founding member of the Friends of Hungary Foundation, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994, died at his home in Beverly Hills on March 8, aged 89. According to his will, he was laid to rest in Budapest, his hometown.Addressing the ceremony in the Fiumei Rd. Cemetery, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Olah was someone always walking his own path, a man unwilling to compromise. “Even when he ascended to the top of the scientific world to receive the Nobel Prize, he handled it humbly, with a great honour, with due respect of a great personality,” Orbán said. The Premier said the professor had remained the same person, “a cordial man with an open heart, someone living for his work and family; a chemist exploring with ever-lasting curiosity the eternal laws of the Universe”.

Viktor Orbán said that Olah had been one of those few Hungarians whose life and professional scientific career had “reflected the greatest traits of the Hungarian nation: talent, knowledge, creativity and a passion for life”. The prime minister said Olah had always remained “a true Hungarian patriot,” whose institute supported every talented Hungarian chemist and who had used part of the cash award going with the Nobel prize to establish an award to honour achievements in chemistry in Hungary.

(via hungarytoday.hu, photos: mti.hu)