Klaus Schmidt is vice-dean and professor at the faculty of Mathematics of the University of Vienna. He also serves as president of the Erwin Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematical Physics.

He held different positions such as research fellow, lecturer and professor at Mathematics Institutes at the University of Manchester, University of London and University of Warwick before returning to Austria in 1994. He also served as the Scientific Director of the Erwin Schrödinger International Institute between 1995 and 2003.

Schmidt received his Ph.D degree in Mathematics from the University of Vienna in 1968.