Short answers, pulled from the story.
Rudolf Simek, born on the 21st of February 1954, is an Austrian philologist and religious studies scholar. He specializes in Germanic religion and mythology, Old Norse literature, Vikings, and medieval science, and has been Professor and Chair of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn since 1995.
Simek's Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie, first published in 1984 by Kröner in Stuttgart, is among his most widely circulated works. It has been translated into English, French, and Icelandic.
Simek has held professorships at the University of Bonn (since 1995), the University of Tromsø (from 1999), and the University of Sydney (from 2000). He has also held visiting professorships and research stays at the universities of Reykjavik, Copenhagen, London, and Oxford.
Yes. In 2005, C.H. Beck published Simek's Mittelerde -- Tolkien und die germanische Mythologie, which examines how J.R.R. Tolkien drew on Germanic and Norse mythological sources in constructing his fictional world.
In 2016, C.H. Beck published Simek's Vinland! Wie die Wikinger Amerika entdeckten, a book focused on the Norse discovery of Vinland and the Viking-age Atlantic crossings that brought them to the North American continent.
Simek is a member of the Viking Society for Northern Research, the Society for Northern Studies, the International Arthurian Society, the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Germanistik, and the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy. He also served as Chairman of the International Saga Society from 2000 to 2003.