Born 1968 in Neustadt (Weinstrasse). Studied computer science at University Karlsruhe and ENSIMAG Grenoble. Visiting researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA (1994). PhD in computer science at the Institut Nationale de Polytechnique de Grenoble, France (1997). Postdoctoral associate and Visiting Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA (1997-1999). Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland (1999-2004). Full Professor of Computer Science TU Darmstadt, Germany (2004-2010). Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (since 2010). Professor of Computer Science at Saarland University (since 2010)