Lanny D. Schmidt (May 6, 1938 – March 27, 2020)[1] was an American chemist, inventor, author, and Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota.

[4] Schmidt's research since the early 1990s has focused on the catalytic partial oxidation of alkanes (particularly methane) and oxygenates in continuous flow fixed bed supported catalyst reactors.

— Sam Jaffe, Washington Monthly[7]The discovery has been referenced over 200 times, and it led to Schmidt being listed among the Scientific American top 50 researchers of 2004.

theses at Minnesota, and 14 of his former students hold university teaching positions including Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Raymond Gorte and Dionisios Vlachos.

In 2004, he published the second edition of his best-selling textbook, The Engineering of Chemical Reactions, which stressed the importance of the relationships between thermodynamics, kinetics, and transport phenomena for a full understanding of reactor design.

[11] Since 2003, Schmidt has been a strong advocate of biomass-derived energy and a supporter of biomass processing research as a solution to the decreasing petroleum supply.