On March 23, 2016, Prof. Kurt Dialer, Professor Emeritus of Technical Chemistry at TUM, died at the age of 95. Kurt Dialer, born in Zell am See, Austria, studied chemistry in Innsbruck, received his doctorate there after the end of the war under Prof. Erika Cremer and then worked as an assistant at the chemical institute under Prof. Franz Patat. From 1948 to 1952 he worked in the research and development department of the Hoffmann La-Roche company in Basel. In 1952 he followed his mentor Patat, who had moved to the TH Hannover; In 1953 he received his habilitation in technical chemistry and took over the Hanover chair in 1955/56 after Patat had accepted a position at the TH Munich. In 1956, Dialer went back into industry: at Hoechst AG, he played a key role in the reaction technology development and process engineering design of new petrochemical processes. In 1964 he was appointed to the newly created Chair of Technical Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart. In 1970 he finally accepted a position at the TH Munich and headed the Chair of Technical Chemistry until his retirement until 1989. For many years he was dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, Biology and Geosciences. Kurt Dialer was a member of numerous scientific committees. He was an expert reviewer for the DFG and the Working Group of Industrial Research Associations and sat on the board of the Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DECHEMA) for a long time. His background in industry and his broad scientific interest allowed Kurt Dialer to ideally combine theory and practice. In 1986, the renowned scientist was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.