Born 1958 in Nickenich. Study of biology Marburg Univ., Juniata College USA, Tübingen Univ., PhD (1987), research at the Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center, Frederick/MD/USA, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma-ceutical Research Institute, Princeton/NJ/USA (1988-1993), group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg (1993-2001), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology (2001-2021), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Martinsried, in foundation (since 2022).