Erich Wintermantel studied medicine at the University of Tübingen in Germany and earned a M.D. PhD. degree, having developed a new rapid microvascular surgical technique.

He joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich) in 1986 as senior assistant and scientific adjunct in mechanical engineering and lecturer in the design and manufacturing of medical implants and devices. He received his habilitation at ETH Zürich in 1991 in biomaterials science and engineering.

Erich Wintermantel became full Professor at ETH Zurich in 1992 as well as Chairman of the Chair of Biocompatible Materials Science and Engineering and he served as Head of the ETH Institute of Construction and Design Engineering.

Since 2000, Prof. Wintermantel was Chairman and Head of Medical Engineering at the Technische Universität München (TUM) and founded the Central Institute for Medical Engineering. Since 2005, he established Polymer Engineering at TUM.

He has headed more than 70 Ph.D. theses, is founding editor and author of the standard German handbook in Medical and Life Science Engineering, maintains memberships with numerous scientific societies and is an elected fellow of IAMBE, the International Academy of Medical and Biomedical Engineering.

In 2013, Prof. Erich Wintermantel has been awarded the prestigious media prize "Dr.-Richard-Escales-Preis" by Carl Hanser publishers for an outstanding communication between medicine and polymer engineering science and in 2014 he has been elected member of the Sustainability and Innovation Advisory Council of the Bavarian Economy, directly consulting the Bavarian State Government.