Curriculum Vitae

Born on September 13, 1958 in Vienna, Austria. Studies in Strasbourg and Paris: "Ingenieur Diplomé de l'Ecole" (Paris, 1980), Dr. rer. nat. in Physics (Univ. Vienna, 1983), Habilitation in solid state physics (1991), Assistant and Associate Professor in the Materials Physics Department of the Univ. of Vienna (1986-1998), Associated Scientist with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Osteology, Vienna (since 1993), Visiting Scientist at Heriot Watt Univ. Edinburgh (1993-1994), Visiting Professor at Munich Univ. (1997), Chair of Metal Physics at the Univ. of Leoben and Director of the Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1998-2003), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Panck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (since 2003), Honorary Professor of Physics at the Humboldt Univ. Berlin (since 2004), Honorary Professor of Physics at the University Potsdam (since 2009), Interim Director of Experimental Department II of the MPI of Microstructure Physics (since 2010). Awards:  Max Planck Research Award for pioneering work on biological and biomimetic materials (2008 - with Prof. Robert Langer, MIT), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award of the German Science Foundation (2010).