Having gained her higher education entrance qualification (Matura) in 1979, Verena Winiwarter completed the College for Industrial Chemistry in Vienna with distinction in 1981.
She subsequently worked as a technician at the Institute for Analytical Chemistry, Department of Environmental Analysis at the Vienna University of Technology.
Working on the basis of the research programme for cultural landscape research, Winiwarter and three colleagues jointly submitted the first interdisciplinary doctoral thesis in this field at Vienna University, for which she received her doctorate in 1998 (title of the thesis: “Historical and Ecological Processes in a Cultural Landscape.
Winiwarter's team has been developing a literature database relating to Austrian environmental history (EHDA) since 2007, which can be accessed by the general public, both in Austria and internationally.
On January 7, 2014, Verena Winiwarter was named “Austrian Scientist of the Year 2013” by the Club of Education and Science Journalists.