Born in 1971, studied mathematics in Freiburg (Germany) and received her doctorate in 2001 under Wolfgang Soergel. She was Postdoc at the University of Leicester before becoming an assistant professor at Aarhus University in 2003/2004. In 2004 she moved to Glasgow University, where she became a lecturer in 2005 and a reader in 2007. In 2007/08, she was a Von Neumann Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She has been a professor in Bonn since 2008. In 2007, she received the Whitehead Prize. In 2010, she was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad. In 2022, she gave a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians. In 2023, she was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. In 2025, she received an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University. Director at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society since March 2026.