Born on 9th January, 1951. Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Düsseldorf (1979), Postdoctoral fellow, Institute of Clinical Virology, University Erlangen-Nürnberg (1980-1983), Assistant Professor, Institute of Developmental Biology, University of Cologne (1983-1988), Heisenberg Fellow at the University of Cologne and University of Boulder, Colorado (1988-1990), Full Professor, Institute of Developmental Biology, University of Cologne (1990 - 1996), Full Professor and Head of the Institute of Genetics, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf (1996-2006), Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden (since 2007). Awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (1997). Vice President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (since 2009).