since 2022:  Senior Professor of Animal Physiology, Department of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern

2017-2019:  President of the German Neuroscience Society (Neurowissenschaftliche Gesellschaft)

2012-2019:   Coordinator of the DFG Priority Programme Ultrafast and temporally precise information processing: normal and dysfunctional hearing

2012-2016:  Member on the DFG Review Board 206 Neuroscience and Advisory Member on the Board 203 Zoology

2005:  Award of the Rheinland-Pfalz Academy of Sciences

since 2004:  W3 Professor of Animal Physiology, Department of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern

2004:  Offer of a C4 Professorship of Physiology, University of Frankfurt, (declined)

2000-2007:  Member of the DFG Grants committee on Research Training Groups

1999-2004:  C4 Professor of Animal Physiology, Department of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern

1997-1999:  Founder and leader of the DFG Graduate Research School "Neuronal Plasticity: Molecules, Structures, Functions"

1995-1999:  C3 Professor of Physiology/Neurobiology, University of Frankfurt/Main

1994:  Habilitation (vena legendi) for Animal Physiology, Univ. Tübingen

1987-1989:  Postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University Medical School, California, USA with Prof. Carla Shatz

1986:  Attempto Award of the University of Tübingen

1983-1987:  PhD at the University of Tübingen with Prof. Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler

1982-1983:  Predoctoral fellow at New York University Medical School, New York, USA with Profs. Robert Baker and Rodolfo Llinás

1976-1982:  Diploma in Biology, University of Marburg; Main areas: Zoology, Microbiology, Physics, Pharmacology.

We are curious to understand how the brain works. Conceptional thinking and experimental work in our group is directed to fundamental research. We want to know how brain circuits are structurally and functionally organized. Our studies focus on the central auditory system of mammals, in particular excitatory and inhibitory connections between neurons in the brainstem. These connections (synapses) perform ultrafast with exquisite reliability and remarkable temporal precision. Some of them are illustrated in the above picture. We aim to understand the processes and mechanisms by which the exquisite precision and high fidelity of the hearing apparatuses are achieved. Our approaches include electrophysiological, histological, transcriptomic, and proteomic methods. Deafness-related effects on the development of the central auditory system are also a matter of our active research.