I am Professor of Psychiatry and in January 2018 was appointed the Chairman of the new Department for Molecular Neuroimaging at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany. The institute belongs to the University of Heidelberg (Medical Faculty Mannheim).
I studied medicine from 1983 to 1989 at the University of Cologne and received my doctoral degree (M.D.) in 1990 at the University of Heidelberg. From 1989 to 1993 I was a medical resident/research assistant at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Mainz. From 1993 to 1994 I was a resident at the Neurology Department of the Brüderkrankenhaus Trier, before I returned to the University of Mainz as a specialist in psychiatry.
I spent the year 1995, supported by a training grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG), at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. In the Department of Radiology, Division of Nuclear Medicine, I learned – under the guidance of Dean F. Wong – the application of positron emission tomography in neuroscience, especially in psychiatry.
After my return to Germany in 1996 I became a senior physician/attending at the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Mainz. Here I got my habilitation in 2001. On March 1st, 2004, I moved to the RWTH Aachen University, where I became Deputy Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, and initially took the vacant Chair of Social Psychiatry. In December 2004, I was appointed to the Chair of Experimental Neuropsychiatry. I served on this position for almost 14 years.
I am member of several scientific societies (American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, ACNP; Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Neuropsychopharmakologie und Pharmakopsychiatrie AGNP; Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum CINP; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Biologische Psychiatrie DGBP; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Nervenheilkunde DGPPN; European College of Neuropsychopharmacology ECNP). I am the chairman of the Divison “Psychopharmacology” of the DGPPN and chairman of the Task Force “Therapeutic Drug Monitoring” of the AGNP.
Please also visit my profile on LinkedIn.
