Automotive, railroad and aircraft construction are constantly dependent on new materials, as are power electronics. With his research on the crystallography of inorganic compounds, powder metallurgy and high-temperature alloys, Hellmut Fischmeister made a significant contribution to modern materials development.
He studied physics, mathematics and chemistry at the University of Graz, and from 1953 Fischmeister worked at the University of Uppsala, developed at Ericsson, and researched and taught in Stockholm, Söderfors and Gothenburg. In 1975 he moved to the University of Leoben, and in 1981 to the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart. In 1993 he was appointed honorary professor by the Graz University of Technology.
Born in Vienna, he has published more than 250 scientific papers and four books. For his research work, he received honorary doctorates from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the Graz University of Technology, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art I. Class, and honorary membership of the DGM.