| 23.5.1963 | born in Hamm/Westfalen, Germany |
| 1982 - 1986 | Study of physics, mathematics and chemistry at the University of Dortmund, Diplom in Physics, Vordiplom in Mathematics |
| 1987 | PhD in physics on "Phase transitions" in polaron systems, do they exist or not? at the University of Dortmund |
| 1988 - 1990 | Postdoc at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München with Prof. Dr. Herbert Wagner |
| 1990 - 1991 | Postdoc at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon with Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Hansen |
| 1991 - 1995 | Postdoc at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München with Prof. Dr. Herbert Wagner |
| 1993 | Habilitation at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München |
| 1995 | Call on a chair in Theoretical physics at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf |
| 2001 - 2003 | Schlumberger Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge, UK, Center of Computational Chemistry |
| 2005 | Visiting Professor at the Universita di Roma La Sapienza, Italy. |
| 2002 - 2013 | Coordinator of the Sonderforschungsbereich TR6 |
| 2007 - 2013 | Vertrauensdozent der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft of the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf |
| 2010 | Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford, UK |
| 2011 - 2013 | Coordinator of the German-Japanese bilateral cooperation Soft Matter in nonequilibrium funded by the DFG
|
| 2014 - 2021 | member of the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
| 2018 - | Co-Editor of Europhysics Letters |
| |
| 6.1982 | participation in the 13th International Olympic Games in Physics;
gain of a bronze medal |
| 1982-1986 | scholarship and member of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
during the whole study and PhD |
| 1984 | prize of the Abteilung
Mathematik der Universität Dortmund for the best intermediate diploma in mathematics |
| 1986 | prize of the Abteilung Physik
der Universität Dortmund for the best diploma in physics |
| 1994 | Heisenberg-fellowship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
|
| Jan 1994 | Gerhard-Hess-Forschungspreis of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
| since 1999 | Fellow of the Institute of Physics |
| 2000 | Academy Award of the Fachschaft Physik at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität
Düsseldorf for the best lecture in the year 1999
|
| 2003 | Gentner-Kastler-Prize (award from the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft and the
Société Francaise de Physique for exceptional contributions to physics) for the
contributions to the physics of soft matter, in particular for the work on colloids
|
| 2010 | recipient of the ERC Advanced Grant INTERCOCOS (with G. Morfill) |
| 2012 | distinction by the Ehrenmedaille (medal of honors) of the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf |
| 2016 | selected as an Outstanding Referee for the Journal of Chemical Physics |
| 2017 | selected as an Outstanding Referee of the Physical Review journals |
| 2018 | selected as an Outstanding Referee for the New Journal of Physics |
| 2023 | SigmaPhi Prize for seminal contributions to Statistical Physics |
