{"id":23927,"date":"2025-03-28T09:09:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T16:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/?p=23927"},"modified":"2025-03-31T13:50:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T20:50:05","slug":"loker-institute-gift-massoud-and-ferial-k-arvanaghi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/loker-institute-gift-massoud-and-ferial-k-arvanaghi\/","title":{"rendered":"$15M gift from alumnus fuels sustainable energy research at USC Dornsife\u2019s Loker Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                                    \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/03\/Arvanaghi-Loker-Gift_Top-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/03\/Arvanaghi-Loker-Gift_Top-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/03\/Arvanaghi-Loker-Gift_Top-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/03\/Arvanaghi-Loker-Gift_Top-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Massoud Arvanaghi and Ferial K. Arvanaghi stand side-by-side smiling\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Massoud Arvanaghi, left, and Ferial K. Arvanaghi established three endowment funds to support chemistry research advancing sustainable technologies. (Photo: Courtesy of Massoud and Ferial K. Arvanaghi.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=sustainability\">Sustainability<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>$15M gift from alumnus fuels sustainable energy research at USC Dornsife\u2019s Loker Institute<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  The USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute will use the donation from chemists and entrepreneurs Massoud Arvanaghi \u201982 and Ferial K. Arvanaghi to drive research aimed at building a more sustainable future and a healthier environment.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Darrin S. Joy<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">March 28, 2025<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 1.5167124.60096154 2.9475732 1.68841575 4.0350274 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\n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          In brief:\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n      <ul>\n              <li><p>Alumnus Massoud Arvanaghi and his wife, Ferial Arvanaghi, donated $15 million to the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute based at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n              <li><p>Funds will support the Loker Institute\u2019s research advancing sustainable energy and carbon capture solutions through three endowed funds that will support graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n              <li><p>The gift honors USC Dornsife researchers Surya Prakash and the late George Olah, who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry \u2014 both important figures in Arvanaghi\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n          <\/ul>\n  <\/div>\n  \n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>An alumnus of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences has donated $15 million to the <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/loker-hydrocarbon-research-institute\/research\/\">USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute<\/a>, based at USC Dornsife, which explores new ways to mitigate global warming by building on foundational research in chemistry.<a href=\"https:\/\/sustainability.usc.edu\/assignment-earth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-16067 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-150x150.png\" alt=\"On a gold background, &quot;Asgmt Earth&quot; appears inside a black circle and &quot;USC&quot; inside a small, white circle that slightly overlaps the black circle.\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-500x500.png 500w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric-320x320.png 320w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/AE_News-Rubric.png 1250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The gift from Massoud Arvanaghi \u201982 and Ferial Arvanaghi will significantly expand the Loker Institute\u2019s ability to develop new and efficient sustainable energy storage solutions by establishing three endowed funds to support graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Massoud Arvanaghi conducted research at the institute while earning his PhD in chemistry and later as a postdoctoral fellow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMassoud and Ferial Arvanaghi\u2019s extraordinary generosity to USC and the Loker Institute is helping us advance sustainable energy technologies that will serve all humanity,\u201d USC President Carol Folt said. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for their dedication both to expanding chemistry research and to training the next generation of highly skilled scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Through discoveries that advance the development of clean fuels, efficient energy conversion and storage, and carbon capture technologies, Loker Institute researchers unlock opportunities to shape a more sustainable economy and a healthier natural environment.<\/p>\n<h2>Transformative gift honors chemistry innovators<\/h2>\n<p>Two of the $5 million funds are named in honor of USC Dornsife Distinguished Professors: G.K. Surya Prakash and George A. Olah.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/in-memoriam-nobel-laureate-george-olah-89\/\">late Olah<\/a> joined USC Dornsife\u2019s Department of Chemistry in 1977, where he remained until his death in 2017. His revolutionary work on \u201csuperacids\u201d and carbocations \u2014 ions with a positively charged carbon atom \u2014 earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/surya-prakash\/\">Prakash<\/a>, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at USC Dornsife, holds the George A. and Judith A. Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry. He is the Loker Institute\u2019s director.<\/p>\n<p>The Prakash and Olah funds, along with the $5 million Massoud Arvanaghi, PhD and Ferial Arvanaghi, MS Endowed Fund, will ensure generations of students and postdoctoral fellows can conduct their research at the Loker Institute, said USC Dornsife Interim Dean Moh El-Naggar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has never been a more crucial time to invest in foundational research focused on sustainable energy and carbon capture,\u201d said El-Naggar. \u201cThis is also a special gift because Massoud and Ferial chose to specifically support young scientists \u2014 PhD students and postdocs \u2014 who are key to the institute&#8217;s success.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cAccidental chemist\u201d earns PhD at USC Dornsife<\/h2>\n<p>Massoud Arvanaghi says he fell into chemistry somewhat by accident. When he applied to Arya-Mehr University of Technology in Tehran, often called the \u201cMIT of Iran\u201d (and since renamed Sharif University of Technology), he says only a handful of the 100,000 applicants had the opportunity to specify the subjects they were most interested in.<\/p>\n<p>Arvanaghi included chemistry on his list and was admitted with immediate placement in that program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn&#8217;t fun for me in the first year,\u201d he admits. \u201cI really struggled with whether I wanted to stay or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Arvanaghi persisted, in part due to the influence of \u201cone of the best advisors at the university, who really made me understand how valuable chemistry is.\u201d His interest grew, and in time he became a teaching assistant in a graduate student laboratory.<\/p>\n<p>As he approached graduation in 1978, his advisor encouraged him to continue his chemistry studies and said Olah would be a great mentor.<\/p>\n<p>Arvanaghi, sensing it might be wise to leave an increasingly volatile Iran as it approached the 1979 Islamic Revolution, applied to several schools in the United States, including USC, where Olah had just moved his lab.<\/p>\n<p>As acceptance letters began to come in, Arvanaghi waited anxiously for USC\u2019s, and with the deadline to choose a program looming and no word from his top choice, he feared he would not be joining the Trojan Family.<\/p>\n<p>When USC\u2019s letter finally arrived with the good news, he immediately headed to Los Angeles, where he joined Olah\u2019s lab and met Prakash, who had come to USC Dornsife with Olah just a few months earlier, earning his PhD and beginning a postdoctoral fellowship.\u201cPrakash was the one who took me to the lab and gave me a bench,\u201d Arvanaghi says.<\/p>\n<p>The two became great friends: \u201cIn my graduate student years, I used to cook Indian food and Massoud would come and eat in my apartment,\u201d says Prakash. The pair would also become prolific laboratory collaborators, publishing numerous papers together while focusing on work that would help earn Olah the Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n<h2>Chemistry in lab and in life<\/h2>\n<p>At USC, Arvanaghi studied methods of stabilizing carbocations \u2014 short-lived, highly reactive molecules that briefly form during certain chemical reactions. For decades, scientists debated their existence because they were so difficult to detect.<\/p>\n<p>Under Olah\u2019s guidance, Arvanaghi, Prakash and other scientists discovered that certain carbocations, when stabilized using highly acidic solutions known as \u201csuperacids,\u201d can have some unusual structures and bonding. This breakthrough allowed them to observe and confirm the existence of these elusive molecules, resolving a major scientific debate and helping to secure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/prizes\/chemistry\/1994\/summary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Olah\u2019s Nobel Prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After earning his PhD from USC Dornsife, Arvanaghi continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow at the Loker Institute for three years. He then worked as a chemist for several companies before landing at a small manufacturer of nutritional supplements, food flavorings and food coloring agents in 1990.<\/p>\n<p>Not long after, Arvanaghi met and began dating Ferial. Their connection extended beyond the personal \u2014 Ferial holds a master\u2019s degree in polymer science from the University of Akron, making their chemistry both romantic and professional.<\/p>\n<p>The couple married in 1993 and just a year later purchased the small food company where Massoud worked. Over the next two decades, they turned it into a thriving, multimillion-dollar business before selling it to International Flavors &amp; Fragrances Inc. in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the couple holds leadership roles in another entrepreneurial venture launched by Ferial in 2002 \u2014 Qualimax LLC, an analytical testing laboratory near their New Jersey home. Ferial serves as managing director and Massoud as scientific director.<\/p>\n<h2>Chemistry prot\u00e9g\u00e9 honors Nobel laureate George Olah<\/h2>\n<p>With their gift, Massoud says he\u2019s particularly proud to honor Olah and Prakash\u2019s profound impact on his life and career, while also helping to create a welcoming home and safe space for students and postdocs to thrive at USC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI came here as a graduate student with nothing,\u201d he says, expressing gratitude to Olah and Prakash for helping him settle in, find jobs on campus and even overcome bureaucratic issues with his student visa and residency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really trying to give something back \u2014 a thank you to everyone at USC who gave me the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Related Articles\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/phd-student-studies-galapagos-tortoises-to-preserve-ecosystems\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >PhD candidate finds his field of dreams studying Galapagos tortoises<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/usc-dornsife-public-exchange-welcomes-climate-leader-with-deep-la-policy-experience\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >USC Dornsife Public Exchange welcomes climate leader with deep LA policy experience<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/toby-kiers-awarded-tyler-prize-for-environmental-achievement\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >USC Dornsife celebrates Tyler Prize winner for turning fungal science into global conservation<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute will use endowment funds established by chemists and entrepreneurs Massoud Arvanaghi \u201982 and Ferial K. Arvanaghi to drive research aimed at building a more sustainable future and a healthier environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":23928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,16,15],"tags":[78,332],"class_list":["post-23927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-science-and-technology","category-sustainability","tag-chemistry","tag-loker-hydrocarbon-research-institute"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>$15M gift from alumnus fuels sustainable energy research at USC Dornsife\u2019s Loker Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"USC Dornsife alum and wife establish endowment funds to drive research for a more sustainable future and 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