Air pollution and renewable energies were already topics for him. In 1956, he created the Air Chemistry Department at the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, of which he was director from 1953 to 1976. His work laid the foundations for the use of wind and solar.
Steinhauser studied mathematics, physics, meteorology and geophysics at the University of Vienna, earning his doctorate in 1933. In 1953, the native of Lower Austria was appointed a full university professor at the University of Vienna.
More than 120 publications in scientific journals can be attributed to Steinhauser, including the book “Klimatographie von Österreich”. For his work he was awarded, among others, the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1974, the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1976, and the Medal of Honor in Gold of the Federal Capital of Vienna in 1980. Steinhauser was also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.