In 1821 Wilhelm Haidinger published his first scientific paper: "On the crystallisation of copper-pyrites" in the Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society (Edinburgh), volume 4, pp. 1–18.

Apart from all these papers, Wilhelm Haidinger published several books: Anfangsgründe der Mineralogie,[2] an account on the collection of the "k. k. Hofkammer im Münz- und Bergwesen";[3] a review of mineralogical research (which grew into a well-known series edited by Gustav Adolph Kenngott);[4] his Handbuch der bestimmenden Mineralogie;[5] an atlas to this textbook on mineralogy[6] and the first complete geological map of Austria-Hungary.

[7] In 1822, Wilhelm Haidinger accompanied August Graf von Breunner-Enckevoirt (1796–1877) on a six-month trip; they traveled from Linz to Munich, Basel, Paris, London, and Edinburgh.

In Edinburgh, banker Thomas Allan provided Haidinger with the means to translate Mohs' Grundriss der Mineralogie[8] into English.

In 1827, Wilhelm Haidinger returned to Austria and became one of the directors of the Erste (böhmische) Porzellan-Industrie Aktien Gesellschaft (Epiag) in Elbogen (now Loket, Czech Republic).

In 1840, Haidinger moved to Vienna to succeed his tutor Friedrich Mohs as director of the mineralogical collection of the Kaiserlich-Königlichen Hofkammer im Münz- und Bergwesen.

[11] How much Haidinger devoted himself to science in general is evident from the fact that he founded a nongovernmental scientific society: the Freunde der Naturwissenschaften in Wien.

(Durch meinem verehrten Freund Wöhler wurde ich auf die Beobachtung, die auch Mitscherlich und L. Gmelin anführen, aufmerksam gemacht, daß man Dolomit in Pulverform künstlich zerlegen kann, wenn man eine Auflösung von Gyps durch denselben dringen läßt.

Dieser Versuch erläutert wohle mit hinreichender Evidenz die Bildung des Kalkspathes aus Dolomit bei unserer gewöhnlichen Temperatur und atmosphärischer Pressung: Haidinger, 1844, p. 250.)

(Wenn man nämlich durch gepulverten Dolomit eine Auflösung von Gyps filtriert, so entsteht die umgekehrte doppelte Zersetzung in der Art, daß Bittersalz aufgelöst durch's Filtrum geht, während kohlensaurer Kalk zurück bleibt: Von Morlot, 1847 A, p. 309.)

In this regard, it must be remembered how Wilhelm Haidinger had allowed Adolph von Morlot to publish his accounts on the laboratory syntheses of dolomite first and foremost in Haidinger's own Berichte über die Mittheilungen von Freunden der Naturwissenschaften in Wien (at the same time Morlot's paper on the synthesis of dolomite appeared in four other well-known journals.

[18] Little or no doubt can remain as to the scientific status that Wilhelm Haidinger achieved from 1850 to 1866: the Kaiserlich-Königliche Geologische Reichsanstalt became the epicentre of geological research of its time.

According to Döll (1871),[28] Wilhelm Haidinger played a major role in the founding of the "k. k. Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Wien" (Becker, 1871 mentions how Haidinger had started the Austrian Geographical Society after the example of the famous Royal Geographical Society of London); the Werner-Verein zur geologischen Durchforschung Mährens und Schlesiens, the Geologischer Verein für Ungarn in Pest, the Società Geologica in Milan, Italy, and its successor the Società Italiana di Scienze naturali.

With considerable pride Wilhelm Haidinger related, how Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria-Hungary had visited the building of the k. k. Geologischer Reichsanstalt in Vienna on 15 February 1862.