Christoph Meinel is emeritus professor of history of science at the University of Regensburg. His research interests include the history of chemistry, the social history of science, communication in science, the history of alchemy, and early modern science in general.

A chemist by training, he switched to the history of science and obtained his PhD at the University of Marburg. Following a postdoctoral year at the University of Kent at Canterbury, England, he held university positions in Marburg, Hamburg, Berlin and Mainz before moving to Regensburg in 1990. He was Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg / Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, and held visiting positions at Smith College, Northampton/Mass., and the Université Paris-Sud, Orsay.

Christoph Meinel is member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina and member of the Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Science in Paris. He served as president of the German Society for the History of Science, and vice-president of the Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsgeschichte. From 1998 to 2011 he was founding president of the International Commission on the History of Modern Chemistry. He was/is on the editorial boards of Ambix (London), Annals of Science (London), Centaurus (Copenhagen), Chemical Heritage (Philadelphia), Hyle: Studies in History and Philosophy of Chemistry (Karlsruhe), Dejiny ved a techniky (Prag), Science Networks (Basel), and NTM (Basel).

At the University of Regensburg he served on various academic bodies and, for three electoral terms, as Dean of Faculty. From 2000 to 2003 he chaired the DFG Fachausschuß 'Geschichte der Medizin, Naturwissenschaft und Technik' and was, from 2004 to 2008, member of the DFG 'Fachkollegium Geschichtswissenschaften'. From 2008 to 2023 he served as Research Ombudsman of the University.