Born 1958 in Bremerhaven. Study of physics and astronomy in Cologne, Münster and Bonn (MPIfR), doctorate Münster Univ. (1984), research fellow California Institute of Technology Pasadena/USA (1985-1988), research fellow (1988-1991) and scientist (1991-1996) with tenure (1997) at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), Charlottesville/USA, Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (since 1997), Adjunct Scientist NRAO (since 2001), Honorary Professor at Cologne University (2005).