Michael was born in Munich and was raised for 10 years in Ebersberg near Munich before he moved to Jülich. He studied Physics in Bonn. During his Diploma thesis he worked for Prof. Stimming at the Research Center Jülich. He used an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance and XPS for the investigation of model catalysts for PEM fuel cells. During his PhD thesis (issued by RWTH Aachen) he worked for Prof. Bolt on the plasma-based deposition and characterization of thin multi-phase layers (PVD of metal interlayers and CVD of a-C:H from acetylene or a-Si(C,O,N):H from Tetraethoxysilane or Tetramethylsilane). Later Michael moved to Dresden and started to work for Prof. Kieback on fundamental investigations of sintering processes of metal powders. He used high resolution computer tomography combined with image analysis to track the motions of the particles inside sintering specimens and molecular static simulations of grain boundaries in pure copper and developed an analytical model for sintering of wires in the presence of torque. The project partners – Dr. Kraft’s group at Fraunhofer IWM Freiburg - used the data in DEM computer models of sintering. Later Michael continued to work for Prof. Kieback and investigated fundamentals of field assisted sintering technology – commonly known as spark plasma sintering (SPS). Michael’s experimental data were used in conjunction with FEM Simulations performed by Prof. Wallmersperger’s group as project partners. Now Michael is setting up a laboratory information and management system (LIMS) as Admin of our group (open to all interested work groups of the faculty). He is also starting to work on Spectro electrochemistry and X-Ray analytics.