Miriam M. Unterlass studied chemistry, process engineering and materials science in Würzburg, Southampton, and Lyon. She then completed her PhD with the thesis "From monomer salts and their tectonic crystals to aromatic polyimides: development of neoteric synthesis routes" at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and did a postdoc at the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris.  In 2013, she started as an independent group leader at the Vienna University of Technology and habilitated there in materials chemistry in 2018, becoming an assistant professor there with tenure in 2019. Since 2018, she has been a member of the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.  In 2021, she became a full professor of solid state chemistry at the University of Konstanz. She has received several prizes and awards during this time, including the PHÖNIX Prize in the "Prototypes" category and being named a "Young Talent 2016" by the journal Marcomolecular Chemistry and Physics. In 2023, she received the Roy Somiya Award 2023 from the International Solvothermal and Hydrothermal Association (ISHA) for her contributions to solvothermal and hydrothermal research.