Born 1959 in Wiesbaden. Studies in physics and fine arts, PhD in Physics University of Mainz (1989), in 1990 postdoctoral stay at the IBM Research Center, San José, California (USA), German Habilitation at the Faculty of Physics, University of Konstanz (1994), head of an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Berlin (1996-1999), Professor at the University of Ulm (1999-2003), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (since 2003), Honorary Professor of Physics, University of Göttingen (since 2005).