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Posted on: 9/22/2012 12:00:00 AM... Theo Lehner was the Distinguished Lecturer for the Extraction & Processing Division of TMS in 2012. Sadly, he died on June 17, just three months after delivering his address and receiving this prized award at the TMS 2012 Annual Meeting in Orlando. This great loss for the metallurgical world, his family, and friends was due to cancer, for which he had been receiving treatment for more than eight years. In that period, it is remarkable that Theo continued to take a very active part in international meetings and conferences, as well as engagement with students at home and abroad, while providing metallurgical leadership with his employer, Boliden Minerals of Sweden.

Theo spent all of his working life as an extractive metallurgist in Sweden, where he was a leader in research, operations, and development of industrial plants. His metallurgical legacies include substantial improvements to the environmental aspects, labor and process efficiency, and economics of smelting operations for both mine products and recycled materials at the Ronnskar smelter. He has also lectured at the Luleå University of Technology and provided training at the smelter for undergraduate and post-graduate students—This contribution to the education of young professionals will be missed in his country.

Theo became a world leader in his profession through his technical papers and lectures, as well as organizing and participating in conferences, and collaborating with professionals in many countries. He emphasized in his papers the essential need to learn from the past and develop the wisdom to ensure a sustainable industry for the benefit of present and future generations. His deep knowledge and understanding of the technologies available for smelting primary and secondary materials and his relaxed and often humorous style made him a popular speaker. In the last 20 years, he was on the organizing committee for most metal extraction conferences in America, Sweden, Europe, and Australia.

Theo was well known in American metallurgical circles as a very active member of TMS. He served continuously on the TMS Pyrometallurgy Committee from 1989, taking on the role chair in 1995. He was also chair of the organizing committees for the International Symposium on Injection in Process Metallurgy in 1990, General Pyrometallurgy in 1992, and the International Symposium on Co-products and Minor Elements in Non-Ferrous Smelting in 1995. He was also a Fellow of CIM and AusIMM and chaired the organizing committees of several international conferences run by them.

Theo was born in Untereggen Switzerland in 1947, the second of four children of Joseph Lehner, a landscape architect, and his wife, Clara. He was educated at the public primary school in Goldach and the secondary college in St Gallen. After service in the Swiss army, he studied metallurgy at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He graduated Dipl. Ing. Metallurgy ETH with a master’s thesis on "Texturbestimmung von Zink" in 1972.

A Fellowship from the Swedish Institute from 1972 to 1973 provided Theo with industrial research training at MEFOS in Luleå in northern Sweden. He went on to work as a research metallurgist in the MEFOS metallurgical pilot plant and became the leader of the research group on ladle metallurgy for refining steel. This marked the start of his involvement in international communication, interaction, and education. His accomplishments during this time included lecturing and providing a short course on injection metallurgy to the Central Iron and Steel Institute in Beijing, developing short courses on ladle metallurgy, and co-organizing and editing for the series of six Scaninject Conferences held in Sweden from 1977 to 1992.

In 1980, Theo was appointed chief metallurgist at the Avesta stainless steel plant in central Sweden. He became senior metallurgist at Boliden’s Ronnskar smelter in morthern Sweden in 1982. Theo took a leading role in the technical managerial team of Boliden, holding positions that included chief process metallurgist, manager of research and development, and manager of business development. During his 30-year career at the smelter, Theo played an important part in achieving continuous improvements in productivity, flexibility, efficiency, and environmental performance of the smelter. He was also a member of committees and working groups addressing the issues and opportunities involved in the sustainable and responsible recycling of electronic waste in Europe.

In 1973, Theo married the love of his life, Gunilla, and they adopted Leo in 1980. Their second son, Tobias was born in 1981. Despite Theo’s very busy professional life, he was also a close and loving family man who was proud of his sons and his grandchildren, Dante and Livia. A favorite interest at home was searching the forests of morthern Sweden for mushrooms and berries for the kitchen.

Theo was inspirational in his zest for life and warm and friendly personality. He never seemed to be daunted by the cancer which sadly took this great and quiet achiever away from his family, friends, and profession.

He will be hugely missed by his family and always remembered with appreciation and fondness by his friends and colleagues in America and around the world.

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