The holder of an honorary doctorate from the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy in Sofia, Bulgaria, Frerich J. Keil gained his PhD under Reinhart Ahlrichs at the Karlsruhe University of Technology in 1976, with a thesis dealing with quantum chemical approaches for chemical reactions and NMR spectra. Between 1977 and 1989 he was employed at UHDE GmbH in Dortmund, working on process development of coal gasification, heavy water, methanol synthesis, and ammonia synthesis. Since 1989 he has been at the Hamburg University of Technology, where he is Professor of Chemical Reaction Engineering. His research interests are diffusion-/reaction phenomena in catalysis, process modeling, and molecular modeling. Professor Keil is the co-editor of several international journals and some books, has published around 150 research articles, and is the author of a book on diffusion in catalysis.