Received his Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics from the University of Cologne, Germany in 1995. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Argonne National Laboratory and an Assistant Professor (NSCL) at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory in East Lansing, Michigan. His research focusses on nuclear astrophysics, nucleosynthesis in stellar explosions and the structure of extremely neutron-rich nuclei.