Wolfbeis studied chemistry at the University of Graz (Austria) and in 1972 received a PhD in organic chemistry. He then was a post-doctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Radiation Chemistry (now Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion) in the group of Prof. Koerner von Gustorf. In 1974 he became an assistant professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the University of Graz. In 1978 he was a visiting scientist at the Technical University of Berlin in the group of Prof. Ernst Lippert. He became a lecturer (Dozent) in 1979 after submission of a habilitation thesis entitled Syntheses and Spectroscopic Properties of Laser Dyes and Fluorescent Indicators. In the years thereafter, he was a visiting professor at Tufts University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Wuhan University. From 1991 to 1994 he also was the Founding Director of the Institute for Optical Sensors at Joanneum Research (now the Institute for Surface Technology and Photonics). In 1995 he became a full professor at Regensburg University and established its Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Chemo- and Biosensors. As an academic teacher, Wolfbeis has supervised the work of more than 80 PhD students, post-doctoral fellows and Humboldt fellows. Many of them meanwhile have made an impressive academic career.
