Rheinhold Jahn is Professor for Soil Science and Soil Conservation at Halle University (Germany). He served as Chair of Commission 1.2 Soil Geography of the IUSS and Chair of Commission V of the German Soil Science Society from 2002 to 2005. His expertise on regional soil science and soil development is result of intensive research in Canary Islands, Egypt, Portugal, Paraguay, and Philippines. Present scientific work focuses on soil genesis, associations of soils within landscapes, soil evaluation, environmental functions and potentials of soils, element budgets, neoformation, transformation and destruction of clay minerals, organic matter binding to minerals, soil formation and recultivation of lignite mining areas, and fate of heavy metals in soils. During the last years he regularly attended to international meetings, organised a symposia on soil forming processes during the Eurosoil 2004 conference, workshops on soil description and soil classification in Poland and the Philippines, and initiated two symposia for the IUSS congress in Philadelphia. He was well involved in the attempts to establish the working group of Digital Soil Mapping within the IUSS structure. http://bk.landw.uni-halle.de/mitarbeiter/jahn/  Research and publications: http://www.forschung-sachsen-nhalt.de/index.php3?option=projektleiter_detail&pid=64866