Noll[1] studied sociology, economics, social policy and statistics at the Goethe University Frankfurt.
After the diploma in sociology he wrote a dissertation at the chair of Wolfgang Zapf at the University of Mannheim and received his philosophers degree (Dr.
in 1981 with a thesis on "Occupational Chances and Working Conditions: A Social Report for the Federal Republic of Germany 1950–1980“ („Beschäftigungschancen und Arbeitsbedingungen: Ein Sozialbericht für die Bundesrepublik 1950–1980“) (1982).
Noll was called into several scientific and policy advisory bodies, for example as a speaker of the "Section of Social Indicators" ("Sektion Soziale Indikatoren") of the German Sociological Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, DGS) or president of the ISA-Research Committee 55 "Social Indicators".
Noll furthermore held positions as a councillor in various research projects and was member of the Editorial boards of journals like Social Indicators Research, Current Sociology and Applied Research in Quality of Life Nollʼs sociological significance consists in institutionalizing the earlier work done by his teacher Wolfgang Zapf and his colleagues in SPES and Sfb 3: by doing this, Noll, in international comparison, saved Germany a prominent ranking place in the scale of social reporting intensity.