Bringing science and practice together was important to him – which is why Roland Mitsche founded the International Light Metals Conferences and the Metallography Conferences in Leoben in 1954, as well as the Metallurgy Colloquium on the Arlberg. After studying iron and metal metallurgy, he became full professor of metallurgy and materials testing at the Montanuni Leoben in 1951, and rector in 1960/61. He also held guest professorships in Manchester, Istanbul and Wales. His scientific work covers a broad spectrum of metallurgy, such as aluminum-silicon alloys, high-speed steels, powder metallurgy and crystallization of melts. With Optische Werke C. Reichert, he developed the grain-size measuring eyepiece, the microreflecting, two-tier and heating microscope.
Mitsche received, among others, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Art and Science and the Le Chatelier Medal of the Académie des sciences. The DGM awards the Roland Mitsche Prize in his honor, most recently in 2020.