Prof. Dieter Bäuerle studied Physics at the University of Stuttgart, where he earned a doctorate in 1969. Subsequently, he spent two years as a Max-Kade-Fellow at the Cornell University, Ithaka, New York. After some years at Philips Research in Eindhoven and a Habilitation at the RWTH Aachen, he accepted a Professorship for Experimental Physics at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, in 1975. From 1978 until his retirement in 2008, he was Full Professor and Head of the Institute of Applied Physics at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria.
Prof. Bäuerle was a pioneer in the field of laser-induced chemical processes at interfaces. In this field, he authored the first comprehensive book in 1986, followed by several updated editions. Together with his team, he was first to demonstrate laser induced chemical vapor deposition. He also provided important contributions to the fields of quantum optics, solid state physics, physical chemistry and medical technology.
Since 1998 he was a member of the Academy of Sciences, New York, since 1991 a Christian Doppler Senior Fellow. He held a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Bucharest (2002) and was Professor Honorario of the Universidad Cesar Vallejo, Trujillo, Peru (2004). He was a member of the Heisenberg Society, Munich, since 2018 and received several distinctions including the Adolf-Schärf-Award for Science (1984). He was Guest Professor in Paris and in Lecce, and Russel S. Springer Professor at UC Berkeley. Prof. Bäuerle was editor and associate editor of several scientific journals and books. He was a council member of the European Physical Society (EPS, 1979-1983) and a member of the committee of the Semiconductor and Insulators Section of the EPS (1980–1986) and of the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS 1982–1987). He was in the advisory boards of the German Physical Society (DPG, 1998–2004) und of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, 1997–2003), Japan.
In 2016, he founded the Dieter W. Bäuerle Stiftung/Dieter W. Baeuerle Foundation at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and in 2019 the Dieter W. Bäuerle Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Kunst/Dieter W. Baeuerle Foundation in Linz, Austria.