From 1996 to 2012 Prof. Dr. Leslaw Mleczko worked as a senior scientist and then research manager for Bayer AG Central Research, as well as Corporate Engineering and Technology. For more than decade he headed the Competence Center “Reaction Engineering and Catalysis” and led development of several catalytic processes with special focus on sustainability, e.g. by using biomass or CO2 as feedstock for chemical conversions. From 2012, until his retirement in 2020 he was a V.P. for Process Technology and a Distinguished Fellow. Leslaw supported and steered international projects and programs aiming at development of novel technologies, often in collaboration with start-up companies. He began his professional career as a research engineer in the Institute for Fuel Energy where he participated in the development of the multistage fluidized-bed technology for coal gasification. After obtaining his PhD from the Silesian Technical University (Poland) and completing a post-doc in fluidization and applied catalysis at the Institute of Technical Chemistry (University of Hannover), Leslaw lead research on catalytic conversion of natural gas at the Catalytic Reaction Engineering Group in the Chair of Technical Chemistry of the Ruhr-University Bochum where he became a faculty member. Prof. Dr. Mleczko has coauthored more than 100 patents and 100 peer reviewed publications.