After studying meteorology, he worked as a PhD student at the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München (LMU) on his thesis "Retrieval of microphysical properties of desert dust and volcanic ash aerosols from ground-based remote sensing". After obtaining his doctor degree in 2011, he developed and implemented a new parameterization of the absorption of radiation by atmospheric gases in the radiative transfer code libRadtran. Since 2014 his research again focuses on aerosol characterization by remote sensing and in-situ methods.

In our group, Josef Gasteiger works on the ERC project A-Life, lead by Bernadett Weinzierl, with focus on modeling of light scattering by aerosols and remote sensing retrievals for desert aerosols mixed with other absorbing aerosols.