Professor Gottstein is the Head of the Institute of Physical Metallurgy and Metal Physics of the Rhineland-Westphalian Technical University of Aachen, Germany. Having obtained his academic degrees from RWTH, he worked for altogether nine years in the USA, as a Visiting Scientist in the Argonne National Laboratory, Associate Professor and then as a Professor at Michigan State University. In 1989 he took up his present appointment at RWTH.
Professor Gottstein has authored ten textbooks, more than 450 articles and 42 invited papers for international conferences. He has received numerous scientific awards, including the Max Planck Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Masing Award of the German Metallurgical Society and the Heyn Medal of the German Materials Society. Since January 2004 he is an editor of the scientific journal Acta Materialia.