| 1973-1979 | Research Assistant, Institute for Agricultural Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna |
| 1978 | Doctorate, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna |
| 1979-1984 | Executive Assistant, Provincial Chamber of Agriculture of Tyrol, Innsbruck |
| 1985-1989 | Director, Provincial Chamber of Agriculture of Tyrol, Innsbruck |
| 1989-1994 | Austrian Federal Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Vienna |
| 1995-2004 | European Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, Brussels |
| 2005-2011 | Chairman, Ecosocial Forum Europe, Vienna |
| 2005-2015 | Chairman, RISE-Foundation, Brussels |
| 2014-2015 | Chairman of the Steering Committee of the EU scientific programme for Expo Milano 2015 |
| since 2012 | President, European Forum Alpbach, Vienna |
| since 2016 | President, Board of Trustees to the Austrian Institute of Advanced Studies (IHS), Vienna |
| 1973 | Diploma Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology |
| 1976 | Ph.D., Biophysics, University of Konstanz |
| 1976-1977 | Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Konstanz |
| 1977-1980 | Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Ulm |
| 1980-1981 | Postdoctoral Fellow, IBM Research Laboratory, San José, CA |
| 1981 | Visiting Scientist, Institute Laue-Langevin, Grenoble |
| 1981-1986 | Assistant Professor, Technical University of Munich |
| 1985 | Visiting Scientist, IBM Research Laboratory, San José, CA |
| 1986 | Postdoctoral Degree: "Habilitation" - Physics, Technical University of Munich |
| 1986-1991 | Young Investigator/Associate Professor, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz |
| 1988 | Visiting Scientist, Optical Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ |
| 1990 | Visiting Scientist, Dept. of Chem. & Nuc. Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA |
| 1990-1991 | Visiting Professor, University of Erlangen |
| 1991-1999 | Head of Laboratory, Exotic Nano-Materials, Frontier Research Program, RIKEN-Institute, Japan |
| since 1992 | Consulting Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA |
| 1993-2008 | Director, Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung, Mainz |
| since 1998 | Professor (by Courtesy) Chemistry Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL |
| since 1999 | Adjunct Professor, Hanyang University, Korea |
| 1999-2003 | Temasek Professor, National University of Singapore |
| 2004-2013 | Visiting Principal Scientist, Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Singapore |
| since 2008 | Scientific Managing Director, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Vienna |
| since 2009 | Honorary Professor, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna |
| Visiting Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
