With the advent of Catalysis Reviews-Science and Engineering, it would seem appropriate that a status report on catalytic reaction engineering be fashioned at this time. Rather than present a comprehensive review of the diverse aspects of the general subject, we choose to set forth a more modest and manageable commentary on key areas of the subject to indicate the level of progress, or the lack of it, in areas complementing the catalytic sciences. As such, literature citations are merely illustrative, not comprehensive. Hopefully our limited comments will inspire experts in each of the various subdisciplines of catalytic reaction engineering to create more profound commentaries for this Journal.