Christian Reichardt obtained his Ph.D. in 1962 under the tutelage of Prof. K. Dimroth at the university of Marburg, and completed his Habilitation in 1967. Since 1971 he has been Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Philipps University Marburg. In 1988 he was visiting professor at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and 1998 at the University of Bratislava, Slovak Republic, and 2000 at the University of Oita/Japan. He has authored and co-authored more than 170 papers and patents, as well as two books. For his book on Solvent Effects he received in 1989 the literary prize of the "Fonds der Chemischen Industrie" in Frankfurt (Main). In 2000, he received the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie-Medal of the Polish Chemical Society.