The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected 65 new members and nine foreign associates. Among these distinguished individuals is George Olah, USC College Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Engineering and Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Chair in Organic Chemistry.

Olah, one of the world's preeminent scholars of hydrocarbon chemistry, received the 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for groundbreaking work on superacids and his observations of carbocations, a fleeting chemical species long theorized to exist but never confirmed.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions given to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

Robert A. Scholtz, Fred H. Cole Professor of Engineering, department of electrical engineering at USC is also a newly elected member of NAE.

NAE's total U.S. membership is 2,246 and the number of foreign associate is 197.