Adolf Pucher is considered one of the greats among Austria’s civil engineers. Pucher studied at the Graz University of Technology, worked for a construction company in Graz from 1927 and returned to the TH Graz two years later, where he became an assistant at the newly founded Chair of Reinforced Concrete.
At this time he wrote his dissertation, which is considered a fundamental work on the calculation of doubly curved shells. After receiving his doctorate in 1932, the Berlin construction company Dyckerhoff and Widmann hired him in 1934. There he attracted the attention of the important German reinforced and prestressed concrete construction researcher Franz Dischinger, who was able to recruit him for the TH Charlottenburg.
In 1941 he was appointed to the TH Vienna, where he succeeded Rudolf Saliger. In 1945, Pucher switched to business. Until resuming his activities at the TH Vienna in 1961, Pucher worked as an authorized signatory of the Graz construction company Ed. Ast & Co. He succeeded Karl Girkmann at the Vienna University of Technology in 1953.