Curriculum Vitae

Born on April 18, 1965 in Hilden. Study of music, metallurgy and metal physics (summa cum laude) RWTH Aachen; doctorate (summa cum laude) RWTH Aachen (1992), Staff Scientist and Group Leader at the Institute for Metal Physics, RWTH Aachen (1992-1997), German Habilitation, RWTH Aachen (1997), Visiting Scientist Dpt. for Materials Science and Engineering Carnegie Mellon Univ. Pittsburgh, USA, Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research (since 1999), Professor at RWTH Aachen and at the Dpt. for Materials Science and Engineering Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, USA. Amongst others he holds the following offices and prizes: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award (2004), election among the TOP-10 of the most eminent German researchers below the age of 45 years; Member of the Academy of Sciences of North Rhine-Westphalia; Lee Hsun Lecture Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 2008; member of the Board of Governors of Acta Materialia, Member of the Science Advisory Board of the German Government (Wissenschaftsrat, 2010) and chief executive officer of the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research (2010).