Lothar Reh has been  Full Professor at the Institute for Process Engineering at the  Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zuerich from 1986 to 1998. His research covered the main topic ¡°processing of fine particles, especially the fundamentals of fluid dynamic and reaction techniques for high temperature gas/solids processes¡±.  He still consults  in this field.

Lothar Reh was born on August 6th, 1931 at Bamberg, Germany. Following a diploma degree in chemical engineering from Karlsruhe University in 1955 he worked as development engineer at Metallgesellschaft AG, Frankfurt/M, Germany. In 1961 he  graduated with an external doctorate thesis at  Karlsruhe University  and changed to LURGI GmbH, Frankfurt/M. He held different leading positions in design, procurement and development of several new processes from the initial concept to large scale realization. From  1978 to 1985  he acted as director of corporate R&D for the LURGI  group, the largest German process engineering company that time.

For the development of an innovative circulating fluid bed process for calcining aluminium trihydrate he received the Max Buchner Award 1971 of DECHEMA. During his work in industry he actively promoted industry/university research cooperation and  became honorary professor at Karlsruhe University, where he lectured high temperature  gas/solids processing from 1982 to 1996. At  ETH Zuerich he served as head of the Department ¡°Mechanical and Process Engineering¡± from 1990 through 1994.

He participated in numerous national and international scientific commissions and organizations and stays still involved. He received  in 1987 the Award of the IX. Inter-national Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion of ASME at Boston (USA) for pioneering fluidized bed combustion development work, in 1996 the Award of Achievement of 5th International Conference on Circulating Fluidized Beds in Beijing for fundamental work in this field  and in 1999 the Award of Achievement of 6th Inter-national Conference on  Circulating Fluidized Beds at Wuerzburg for pioneering work and outstanding achievements in research and technical development in high velocity fluidization. A total of 158 publications in scientific journals and proceedings  as well as 77 international patents document his work.

First contacts of Lothar Reh to China date back to 1975, when he held an invited lecture at the Techno-Germa  industrial exposition at Beijing. First lectures at the CAS Institute for Chemical Metallurgy about fine particle high temperature processing and environmental control in 1984 initiated a long-term cooperation with the Multi-Phase Reaction Laboratory of CAS as well  with the ¡°State Key Laboratory of Efficient and Clean Combustion of Coal¡±  of Tsinghua University during the 90ties. In 1998 a still active joint research cooperation agreement between the Institutes for Process Engineering  of CAS and ETH  has been settled. In  1991 on behalf of  International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)  and Chinese Chemical Society  the 1st All-Chinese National Workshop ¡°Safety in Chemical Industry¡± at Jilin has been performed. As author of  keynote lectures in clean coal combustion,  SOx / NOx emission control and materials recycling at different conferences at Beijing and by contributions to ¡°China Particuology¡± Lothar Reh became known to a broader audience in China.