Born in 1951 near Gross-Gerau, Germany, G. Herbert Vogel served an apprenticeship at Rohm & Haas before going on to study chemical engineering at Darmstadt Polytechnic and chemistry at Darmstadt Technical University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1982 in physical chemistry under Alarich Weiss. Between 1982 and 1993 he was employed at BASF AG in Ludwigshafen, working on the development, planning, construction and installation of petrochemical production plants. In 1993, he succeeded Fritz Fetting as Professor for Chemical Engineering at Darmstadt TU. His research interests are heterogeneous catalysis, chemistry under supercritical conditions and renewable primary products.