born in Oberhausen (Rheinland) in 1968

diploma in chemistry at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in 1992 and a Ph.D in organic chemistry at the same university in 1994 working with Prof. Wolfgang R. Roth

thesis work: experimental determination of stabilization energies of p-conjugated hydrocarbon radicals using single pulse shock tube kinetics.

Postdoctoral Feodor-Lynen Fellow with Professor Ronald Breslow at Columbia University in New York City (1995-1997): work on cyclodextrin enzyme mimics and unnatural DNA analogs

habilitation in supramolecular and bioorganic chemistry at the University of Cologne in 2001 associated to the group of Prof. Albrecht Berkessel

since June 2008 chair of organic chemistry (W3-professor) at the university of Duisburg-Essen

His main research interests are the design of artificial receptors for biological relevant substrates such as peptides and carbohydrates using both de-novo design and combinatorial methods, the study of self-assembling zwitterions as building blocks for supramolecular polymers and soft nanomaterials in water and the thermodynamic study of non-covalent interactions in general.

His awards include among others the Dozentenstipendium of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie, the Karl-Arnold-Preis of the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen and the university award from the university of Cologne for his habilitation thesis.