He started his studies at LMU Munich. He received his PhD in Mathematics at M.I.T. in 1987. Since 1995, he has been a Professor of Mathematics at Technische Universität Berlin, and then from 2011 at The Freie Universität Berlin, where since 2018 he has served as the President.
He is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, of the German National Academy Leopoldina, and of the German Academy of Engineering Sciences acatech. He has received numerous awards,including a DFG Leibniz prize, an ERC Advanced Grant, the CommunicatorAward, and the Berlin Science Prize of the Governing Mayor of Berlin. Photo credit: Bernd Wannenmacher