Emeritus Professor Lars Reinius died on 16 January at the age of 92. He was the founder of Finnish academic teaching and research in the field of food hygiene. He was born on 26.07.1919 and graduated as a veterinarian in 1947 in Royal Veterinary College, Stockholm. He defended his doctoral thesis in 1953 in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Helsinki (nowadays Faculty of Veterinary Medicine), and nominated as a docent in 1955.

After graduating as a veterinarian Reinius worked as a senior assistant both in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Royal Veterinary College as well as a veterinarian in City of Helsinki. Reinius was appointed as the first Professor of Food Hygiene in 1961 and he was responsible for the establishment of the Department of Food Hygiene (nowadays Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health) and starting of the food hygiene education and research.

Between 1966-1969 he worked as Rector of the College of Veterinary Medicine and took part effectively in the development of veterinary education in Finland.

In 1970, Reinius moved to work with the health legislation issues related to world′s meat trade, in FAO, Rome. In 1972 he moved to Geneva and later to Berlin, to work for WHO. In WHO he worked as a scientific expert on food hygiene and food poisoning monitoring. Reinius was retired in 1984.

Written by Johanna Seppälä.