I studied Horticulture at the Technical University of Hannover with focus on Plant Breeding and Phytopathology. My PhD thesis was about early diagnosis of a fungal disease in wheat. During my scientific career, I worked with different crops species and techniques spanning from tissue culture techniques as protoplast fusion and regeneration in potatoes to the application of various DNA marker techniques in mapping and marker assisted selection in potatoes, flax, perennial ryegrass and maize. Since 2007 I am a scientist at Iowa State University.

My focus is the Doubled Haploid Facility, a service facility that offers the production of doubled haploid lines in maize to research institutions and maize breeder.