Jens Hagen gives vocational training seminars on catalysis throughout the world and until his retirement he was Professor of Technical Chemistry at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences (Germany). The input he received through his international courses had an active influence on the content of the current edition of "Industrial Catalysis". Jens Hagen completed his first degree in chemical engineering in Essen (Germany), before studying chemistry at RWTH Aachen (Germany). He gained his doctorate in 1975 in the field of catalysis and high-pressure synthesis. Following a period in industry at Henkel KGaA, Düsseldorf (Germany), he was appointed as Professor at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences in 1979. Professor Hagen's teaching and research at the faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering focused on chemical reaction engineering and technical catalysis. In addition, he was the head of the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Process Engineering, Biotechnology and Environmental Techniques for many years.