I studied Biology at the Julius-Maximilians University Würzburg and Duke University (North Carolina, USA) with a focus on Tropical Biology and Animal Ecology and received in 2001 a PhD for my thesis on forest management impacts on ant biodiversity in tropical rain forests. I then worked as a study director and team leader in Ecotoxicology in the agrochemical industry in Switzerland and England. Since 2006 I am leading the section on Community Ecology and Ecotoxicology at the Institute for Environmental Sciences of the University of Koblenz-Landau.