René H. Reich
Researcher
Digital Circular Economy
About me
I am a passionate researcher in the field of sustainability and information systems. My main research interests and publications are in the digitalization of circular economies. Currently, I am part of Prof. Karel Van Acker's Sustainability Assessments of Materials and Circular Economy group at KU Leuven. My Ph.D. thesis focuses on the design of digital solutions to benefit circular economies.
In my doctorate, I have guided over ten master’s thesis students and lectured various classes. I have led research, digitalization, and consulting projects. I am an assistant editor for the Journal of Circular Economy. I am passionate about teaching, research communication, like science slams, and research exploitation by giving policy briefings and industry workshops.
Interests
- Sustainability
- Circular Economy
- Green Economy
- Sustainable Operation Managment
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Environmental, Social, and Governance
- Green Information Systems
- Green Business Process Management
- Natural Language Processing
- Knowledge Representation
- Data Governance
- Desing Science Research
- Qualitative Research
- Computational Methods
Education
Master of Science
in Materials Engineering
KU Leuven, 2021
Master of Science
in Sustainable Materials
Montanuniversität Leoben, 2020
Bachelor of Science
in Materials Science
Montanuniversität Leoben, 2018
Upcoming presentations & conferences
NAMA 2024
Management, Technology, and Entrepreneurship for Sustainability
9-11 Oct 2024, Straubing, Germany
ICIS 2024
International Conference on Information Systems
14-18 Dec 2024, Bangkok, Thailand
HICSS-58
58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 2025
7-10 Jan 2025, Waikoloa, HI, USA
Research
For four years, I have been working on the interdisciplinary project Datafication of the Circular Economy. The project is strategic basic research funded by the KU Leuven. My project partner is Charlotte Ducuing at the Center for IT & IP Law. Within the project, we have been working on:
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- Data management and data ecosystems
- Circular Economy governance and reporting
- Notion and Concept of Product Passports
- Product Passports and data governance
- Data sourcing for circular economy
Furthermore, I contributed to the following research projects:
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- Circular Economy Monitor of the Flemish Government
- Flanders Make's explorative study on Digital Product Passports 4 Sustainability
I supervised the following master's thesis projects:
Assessing the impacts of Digital Platform use on the realization of Circular Economy Sezen Gürlek Kafaoğlu (2024). Master in Information Management. |
Circular economy digitization by matching industry resource, material, product, and waste streams Roelants, Hannes (2024). Master in Artificial Intelligence. |
Information and data architecture of circular economy indicators Blloku, Mariza; Kaimi, Fabio; Santos Salazar, Maira (2024). Master in Information Management. |
Data ecosystem of the circular economy monitor Flanders Cornelissen, Thomas; De Sitter, Sarah (2024). Master in Information Managment. |
Environmental Impacts of Data Transmission Holla, Navaneeth (2024). Master in Sustainable Materials. |
Environmental Impact Assessment of Silicon Wafers Production and Supply Chains in the Semiconductor Industry Ahmed, Abullah Ahsan (2023). Master in Sustainable Materials. |
Classification of Circular Economy Indicators for Organization Management Delaiti, Davide (2023). Master in International Business Economics and Management. |
Digital Product Passport Policy in Europe: Potential Shift towards Circular Product Strategies Ayan, Joelle (2022). Master in Sustainable Territorial Development. |
Teaching
Good, high-quality teaching is essential to me. Already early on, working as a tutor for high school and college students financed my studies. I have over 240 hours of adult education training and over 400 hours of contact hours teaching experience. Since February 2018, I am a certified trainer in adult education. I contributed or gave the following courses at universities:
Mathematics 1 |
Mathematics 2 |
Project Work and Problem Solving 2 |
Thermodynamics and Kinetics |
Materials: Properties, Selection and Sustainability |
Metals Production and Recycling |
Sustainable Materials Management |
Python for Materials Science |
Furthermore, I supervised more than seven master's thesis projects in the master's programs of:
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- Artificial Intelligence
- Information Management
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International Business Economics and Management
- Materials Engineering
-
Sustainable Territorial Development
- Sustainable Materials
Recognitions & Destinctions
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Best Young Presenter
September 2023
Best poster award of the Life Cycle Management 2023 conference in the category Young Scientist.
Paper-a-thon Winner
December 2022
Together with Hannah Stein and Lucian Visinescu, one of the winners of the Paper-a-thon of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2022).
Best Poster
September 2023
Best poster award of the Life Cycle Management 2023 conference in the category Overall Winner.
Science Slam Winner
November 2021
Winner of the first Una Europa PhD Slam within the Berlin Science Week.
2nd at Science Slam
March 2023
I won 2nd place in my science slam on the datafication of the circular economy at the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Master's Thesis Scientia Award
September 2021
Scientia Fond Award in the category Engineering And Natural Sciences for my master's thesis "Datafication of material mechanisms in nuclear environment"