Born 1966 in Munich. Study of mathematics and PhD Bonn Univ. (1993), Professor University of California at Santa Barbara (1998), Professor Bonn Univ. (1999), Speaker of the SFB 611 "Singular phenomena and scaling in mathematical models", Bonn Univ. (2002-2006), Managing director of the cluster of excellence „Hausdorff Center for Mathematics“ (2006-2009), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (since 2010), Honorary Professor Leipzig Univ. (since 2010), Member of the Academy of Science of the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen (since 2007), Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (since 2008), Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Award of the DFG (2006).