After studying physics, he received his doctorate from the University of Tübingen in 1987. Following postdoctoral positions at various research institutes including the Electrotechnical Laboratory at Tsukuba, Japan, and IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center at Yorktown Heights, USA, he acquired his teaching qualification (habilitation) at Tübingen in 1993. In 1995, he accepted a full professor position at the University of Cologne and became director of its II. Physics Institute. In 2000, he moved to Munich where he became director of the Walther-Meißner-Institute of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW), which is combined with a Chair position at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).