Born in 1938 in Klagenfurt, Carinthia. He studied mineralogy and petrography at the University of Vienna, with a minor in physics. He graduated in 1963 and has worked at the Mineralogical - Petrographical Department of the Natural History Museum since 1962. He has been the head of this department since 1968, and since 1976 has been a lecturer ("Dozent") at the University of Vienna. He has been a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 1995. His interests are on meteorites, interplanetary dust (micrometeorites) and the Earth’s upper mantle.