Helmut Mayrhofer was born in 1953 in
Aich, a village in Austria. He went to
secondary school in
Gröbming and
Graz, and then to the
University of Graz. He graduated from there in 1976 with a
master's degree, having submitted a thesis titled "Flechten auf
Rhododendron ferrugineum" ("Lichens on
Rhododendron ferrugineum"). Mayrhofer worked at the as a high school teacher before returning to the University of Graz for work as a scientific assistant, a position he held until 1988. While working as a schoolteacher, Mayrhofer was also working on his doctoral degree, under the supervision of
Josef Poelt. He defended his thesis, titled "Die saxicolen Arten der Flechtengattungen
Rinodina und
Rinodinella in der Alten Welt" ("The saxicolous species of the lichen genera
Rinodina and
Rinodinella in the Old World) in 1988, receiving his
venia docendi (Doctor of Science) in
plant systematics. That year he became a university
lecturer; eventually he became an
associate professor in 1995, and held this position until he retired in 2018. As of that year, he had supervised 10 PhD students and 38 masters and diploma thesis candidates. Mayrhofer served twice (1999–2010 and 2013–2017) as the head of the Institute of Plant Sciences at the University of Graz. He was a
visiting scholar at the
University of Ljubljana in Slovenia from 2001 to 2003 and at the
University of Montenegro in
Podgorica from 2004 to 2006. He served as a member of the editorial boards of the journals
Acta Botanica Croatica,
Mycobiota, and
Natura Montenegrina, and has been an editor of the journal
Herzogia. ==Research==