Viktor Gutmann was an advocate of alternative medicine. After his studies and an assistant position at the Vienna University of Technology, he worked at the Universities of Cambridge and Baghdad, and from 1957 back at the Vienna University of Technology. His works include Chemical Functional Theory, Scientific Foundations of Homeopathy, and Scientific Foundations of Homeopathy. The so-called Gutmann parameters, which are useful in organic chemistry for selecting a solvent suitable for the desired reaction, have entered the technical literature. They have become indispensable in practice.
For his research work, Gutmann was awarded the Karl Friedrich Gauss Medal and the Golden Heyrovsky Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, the Rudolf Wegscheider and Erwin Schrödinger Prizes, and in 1993 the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver for services to the Republic of Austria. He holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Cambridge, Budapest and Thorn.