Rein Kuusik received his doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering from Byelorussian Institute of Chemical Technology, Minsk, Byelorussian, in 1971. He is one of founders of the Laboratory of Inorganic Materials at Tallinn University of Technology being the scientific leader and Director of this laboratory up to 2016. Laboratory carries out basic and applied research and development activities in the field of chemistry and technology of mineral-organic multicomponent heterogeneous systems with main aim to find out the new utilization areas for Estonian natural resources ( oil shale, phosphorites, glauconites, limestones-dolomites etc) as well as for inorganic wastes including these ones from oil shale processing industry - ashes from heat and power production as well as solid residue forming at retorting of local low-grade fuels. The investigations in the field of mineral carbonation of alkali wastes have been launched at this laboratory by Dr Kuusik on the end of 1990-ties.