He then was a post-doctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Radiation Chemistry (now Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion) in the group of Prof. Koerner von Gustorf.
He became a lecturer (Dozent) in 1979 after submission of a habilitation thesis entitled Syntheses and Spectroscopic Properties of Laser Dyes and Fluorescent Indicators.
In 1995 he became a full professor at Regensburg University and established its Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Chemo- and Biosensors.
[3] Wolfbeis was the director of the institute, dean of the faculty for chemistry and pharmacy, member of the senate of the university, and its vice president.
He also acted as the head of the Laboratory for Environmental Radioactivity, as the Regensburg representative of the Bavarian Elite Academy.