Marcel A.J. Somers (1960) received his M.Sc. degree in metallurgy (1985) and his Doctor’s degree (1989) from Delft University of Technology (NL). In 89/90 he was with Philips Center for Materials, Technology and Innovation as section leader in advanced materials characterization. He returned to Delft University of Technology as assistant professor in physical chemistry of the solid state in 90 and was appointed full professor of physical metallurgy at DTU in 97. A red thread through Dr. Somers’ scientific work is gas-metal interactions in surface engineering and gaseous corrosion along with microstructure characterization with microscopy, diffraction and spectroscopy. His work is of fundamental character with a technological importance and spin-off for industrial application. Since 2000 Marcel Somers has led a university group in Materials Science an Engineering with strong expertise in atmospheric, aqueous and microbial corrosion, (electro)chemical deposition of metals and alloys and the stability of high temperature materials in coal and biomass fired power plants. Marcel Somers has published more than 140 papers in international scientific and technological journals and conference proceedings. He was awarded the Brandsma prize (89); ASM European Lecturer (99/00); Reinholdt W. Jorck prize (01) and DTU's innovation prize (07). He is an elected member of the Danish Society for Technical Sciences (ATV) since 99 and is chairman of the Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences (FTP) from 07-09.