Reinhard Hentschke received his Ph.D. from the University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA. Subsequently he was a staff scientist at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research, where he concentrated on computer modelling of polymers. Since 1999, he has been Professor of theoretical physics (statistical mechanics of soft matter/chemical physics) at the Bergische Universität, Wuppertal, Germany. His research interests have frequently straddled the boundary between physics and chemistry.