 He began his physics studies in Vienna in 1867 and attained a doctorate after an academic year in Zurich under August Kundt, also working with Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, in the year 1871 in Vienna.The largest influence on his training was Viktor von Lang for his 1872 habilitation with a work entitled "On the Diffusion through Liquid Lamellas" ("Über die Diffusion durch Flüssigkeitslamellen").In 1879 he took up an appointment as extraordinary professor and in 1891 he was re-titled as full professor of the chemico-physical institute, 1902 to "second physical Institut", as a successor to Johann Josef Loschmidt, who had always worried about the "Exner children" as a close friend of family after the early death of his parents.