After receiving his diploma in 1992 and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1994 in Computer Science from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology he worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Max Planck Institute of Computer Science before he moved to Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen University in 2001.
Since 2001 he is the head of the Institute for Computer Graphics and Multimedia at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen university. Here he built up an internationally renowned research group which eventually led to the foundation of the Visual Computing Institute at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule in 2015. His research interests include 3D reconstruction, efficient geometry processing, realtime rendering, digital fabrication and multi-media applications.
Kobbelt published a substantial number of influential papers in international top-conferences and journals.
He also acts as a consultant, reviewer, and editor for international companies, research organizations and journals, respectively. He was nominated as a Fellow of the Eurographics Association (2008) and as a Distinguished Professor of Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen University (2013).
In 2015 he became a member of the Academia Europaea.
