Diploma Degree and Doctorate in Applied Physics from the University of Heidelberg. 1980 till 1985 Assistant Professor for Applied Physics at University of Heidelberg. 1983 and 1984 Visiting Scientist at IBM Almaden Research, San Jose, CA, USA. 1985 till 1992, Optical Systems Engineer for the VLT European Southern Observatory. 1993 till 2000 Vice-President of Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen and Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH, Jena, Since 2000 with OHB and from 2006 till 2018 Member of the Executive Board of OHB System AG and OHB SE. Member of the Boards of Trustees of Max Planck Instituts, former Member of the DLR Senate, former Member of the Boards of Trustees of Fraunhofer Institutes and the Board pf Directors of the US Space Foundation. Full member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), International Astronomical Union (IAU), Member of AIAA, SPIE, DGaO (German Society for Applied Optics), and DPG (German Physical Society).