1986-1992 Study of Chemistry at the University of Mainz partly supported with a stipend of the Friedrich-Ebert-society.

09/1989-03/1990 exchange student at the University of Toronto (Canada) in the group of Prof. M.A. Winnik (with a scholarship of the DAAD). Topic: detection of CMC in block copolymers via fluorescence.

Diploma 10/1992 Title: Order and mobility in polymers:
1H and 13C Solid-State NMR in the group of Prof. H.W. Spiess at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz.

Ph.D 07/1995 with the dissertation
"Development and application of multidimensional NMR-methods to detect orientation and dynamics in inorganic and organic polymers" in the group of Prof. H.W. Spiess.

10/1993-04/1994 visit at the UCSB, Santa Barbara (USA), via a further DAAD stipend. Prof. B.F. Chmelka on the topic: multidimensional 13C-exchange NMR applied to zeolites.

Postdoc from 09/1995 to 4/1997 at the Weizmann-Institute (Israel) in the group of Prof. J. Klein (currently at the University of Oxford, UK) using dendrimers under confinement and shear.
This postdoctoral stay was founded via a MINERVA stipend.

Staff scientist from 05/1997 to 10/2004 at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz in the group of Prof. H.W. Spiess where a habilitation was conducted. The habilitation is the German equivalent of an assistant professorship.
The topic of the habilitation (1997 - 2001) was the development and application of non-linear mechanical methods for the characterization of materials (see below).
This work was rewarded by the Reimund-Stadler prize of the Fachgruppe Makromolekulare Chemie (GDCh) in 1999.

11/2004-09/2006 Professorship at Technical University Darmstadt in joint cooperation with Max-Planck-Institut for Polymer Research. Head of a Max-Planck research group "Mechanics of Polymers" in the engineering mechanics department.

From 10/2006 Professorship „Polymeric Materials“ at University of Karlsruhe, Institute for chemical technology and polymer chemistry.