The advantages of the Sample Controlled Thermal Analysis (SCTA) for both the kinetic analysis of solid state reactions and the synthesis of materials are reviewed. This method implies an intelligent control of the temperature by the solid state reaction under study in such a way that the reaction rate as a function of the time fits a profile previously defined by the user. It has been shown that SCTA has important advantages for discriminating the kinetic model of solid state reactions as compared with conventional rising temperature methods. Moreover, the advantages of SCTA methods for synthesizing materials with controlled texture and structure are analyzed.