Ph.D. in engineering from the Institute for Experimental Mathematics at the University of Essen (1994). Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts (1995–2001). Ruhr University Bochum (2001–2019). Research professor at UMass Amherst (2008/09 and 2014–2016). Founding director at Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Bochum, Germany and affiliated professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst). Research in the area of embedded security. His group is currently working on hardware Trojans, technical and cognitive aspects of (hardware) reverse engineering, physical layer security and the security of cyber-physical systems. One of the spokespersons of the Excellence Cluster CASA – Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries.