Born on December 7, 1951 in Bayreuth. Study of chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics in Berlin and London, PhD Univ. of Cambridge (1981), research posts ETH Zurich (1981-1984) and Imperial College London (1984-1987), Heisenberg Fellowship (1986-1991), head of a research group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Heidelberg (1988-1996), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics (since 1997), Associate Professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.