1988-1994 Study of Physics, University of Erlangen
1994-1998 Ph.D. studies at University of Erlangen and Rostock,
Dr. rer. nat. in Physics at University of Rostock (1998)
1999-2001 Postdoc at the Risø National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark (with Klaus Bechgaard and Robert Feidenhans’l)
2001-2006 “Wissenschaftlicher Assistent“ at University of Würzburg in the group of Eberhard Umbach,
“Habilitation” at University of Würzburg (2006)
2006-2010 “Akademischer Oberrat” at University of Würzburg (granted to leave in 2008)
2008-2012 Group Leader at the Institute for Bio- and Nanosystems (IBN-3) of Forschungszentrum Jülich
since 2012 Professor for Experimental Physics at the Peter Grünberg Institut (PGI-3) of Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Institute for Experimental Physik IV-A of RWTH Aachen University