Dr. Gottlieb Lindner is a chemist by training. He was among the first ERASMUS students and spent a full academic year at the University of Kent in Canterbury before completing his PhD at Philipps University of Marburg in 1994. His first professional experience outside academia was at the Institute of Applied Chemistry in Berlin, where he worked for more than a year on nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. Supported by a prestigious Humboldt Fellowship, he subsequently spent two years at the National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials (NIRIM) in Tsukuba, Japan, together with his family. His research focused on naturally occurring silica based nanomaterials, such as hollow spherical allophanes and tube like imogolites.

In 1998, Dr. Lindner joined Evonik, then known as DEGUSSA, working in R&D on performance oxides, particularly nanostructured silica. This role again brought him to Asia, including extended stays in Japan and almost two years in China.

Since around 2014, while remaining based in R&D to this day, he has increasingly been involved in standardization and committee work. He chairs the German DIN Committee on Nanotechnologies and serves as a Board Member of the DIN Standards Committee for Materials Testing. Within ISO/TC 229 Nanotechnologies, he led the major revision of ISO 80004 1 Core Terms and is also a member of ISO/TC 24/SC 4 Particle Characterization and ISO/TC 256 Pigments, Dyestuffs and Extenders.

At the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN), he is part of the BIAC delegation and participates, among others, in the Steering Groups on Advanced Materials and the Safe(r) and Sustainable Innovation Approach (SSIA). Following involvement in several EU funded projects, including NanoHarmony, he is currently engaged—together with Evonik as a partner—in the Horizon INSIGHT project and the EURAMET project SMURFnano. In the field of advanced materials, he is active within the Innovative Advanced Materials Initiative (IAM I) Task Force on Standards and Norms, chairs the ISO/TC 229 Ad Hoc Group on Advanced Materials, and serves as Chair of the VCI (German Chemical Industry Association) Project Group on Advanced Materials.