Richard S. H. Mah was born on December 16, 1934 in Shanghai, China, the son of S. Fabian Soh Pai and E. Shang (Chang). Mah received his B.S. in 1957 from the University of Birmingham, England and his Ph.D. in 1961 from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. Mah took an appointment as Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University in December 1972. The University appointed him Professor in 1977.
In addition to his work at Northwestern, Mah has served as a trustee of the CACHE Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts and as a consultant to the Argonne National Laboratory. He has held memberships in the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Society of Engineering, and Tau Beta Pi. In 1981 the American Institute of Chemical Engineers awarded Mah its Computing in Chemical Engineering Award.
From the guide to the Richard S. H. Mah (1934-2004) Papers, 1980-2004, (Northwestern University Archives)