He conducted his doctoral research under the direction of Gerhard Ertl and obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in 1999.
[2] He joined Symyx Technologies, Silicon Valley as a postdoctoral associate and was later promoted to Senior Member of staff and served as project leader in Electrocatalysis and Heterogeneous Catalysis.
In 2004 he became assistant professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Houston.
[3] Since 2007 he has been the chaired professor of Electrochemistry and Electrocatalysis in the Chemical Engineering Division at Technische Universität Berlin.
Material-chemical issues are researched, which form the basis for electrochemical energy storage and conversion processes.