Wolfgang Baumeister studied biology, chemistry and physics at the Universities of Muenster and Bonn, Germany, and he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Düsseldorf in 1973. From 1973-1980 he was Research Associate in the Department of Biophysics at the University of Duesseldorf. He held a Heisenberg Fellowship spending time at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England (1980-1981). In 1982 he became a Group Leader at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany and in 1988 Director and Head of the Department of Structural Biology. He is also an Honorary Professor on the Physics Faculty at the Technical University in Munich. In 2000 he was named Moore Distinguished Scholar at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, USA.
Wolfgang Baumeister is the recipient of numerous prizes including the Otto Warburg Medal and the Schleiden-Medal, Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, Stein and Moore Award and Harvey-Prize in Science and Technology. He is a member of several academies including the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.