Born 1951. Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Düsseldorf (1979), Postdoctoral fellow, Institute of Clinical Virology, University Erlangen-Nürnberg (1980-1983), Assistant Professor, Institute of Developmental Biology, University of Cologne (1983-1988), Heisenberg Fellow at the University of Cologne and University of Boulder, Colorado (1988-1990), Full Professor, Institute of Developmental Biology, University of Cologne (1990 - 1996), Full Professor and Head of the Institute of Genetics, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf (1996-2006), Director emertius at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden (since 2007). Awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (1997). Vice President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (since 2009). Emeritus.