| 1951 |
Born in Essen/Ruhr, Germany |
| 1969 |
'Abitur' at Helmholtz-Gymnasium Essen; focus on modern languages |
| 1969-1971 |
Studying Chemistry and Biology at Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen |
| 1971-1977 |
Studying Biology and Chemistry at Ruhr-Universität Bochum |
| 1975 |
Diploma in Biology in Peter Fortnagel's group (Microbial Biochemistry: DNA methylation in Bacillus subtilis) |
| 1977 |
PhD in Biology in Peter Fortnagel's group (Microbial Biochemistry: Isolation of active ribosomes from Bacillus megaterium via immunoprecipitation of nascent protein chains) |
| 1977-1980 |
PostDoc in Cologne in Peter Starlinger's group (Genetics: Transposable elements in Zea mays) |
| 1980-1982 |
PostDoc in Hamburg in Hubert Köster's group (Organic Chemistry: Synthesis and expression of synthetic genes for peptide hormones) |
| 1982-1989 |
University assistant at Technical University Berlin in Gunda Kraepelin's group (Botany: Genetic manipulation of zygomycetous fungi) |
| 1989 |
Habilitation and Venia legendi for Molecular Biology |
| 1989-1993 |
Institut für Genbiologische Forschung GmbH, Berlin-Dahlem: Molecular Genetics of zygomycetes and plant pathogenic fungi) |
| since 1993 |
Professor at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena; Chair of General Microbiology and Microbe Genetics |
| since 1994 |
Managing Editor of MICROBIOLOGICAL RESEARCH |