Professional Interests

I have never had a job, where I worked only in one well determined field. Although I studied molecular biology, I have always done something else beside. First, I worked in physiology, cytology and classical genetics. Then I switched to tissue culture and even to physics, and now, finally to plant breeding. I have always been somehow exotic, as biologist among physicists and among breeders, sometimes even as breeder among biologists. But I have always enjoyed this position.

I got interested in plants already when I started studying biology. As I prefer doing applied research, it was obvious for me, to orient towards breeding research. Except for a one-year-break, I have always been working on maize since a practical training period in 1994, in genetics, molecular biology, physiology and breeding. At the moment, I work in two different fields. I am responsible for a breeding project for conversion of elite material with monogenic traits, and secondly, I am involved in data management and analysis of experiments in genomic research.

I am member of the Gesellschaft für Pflanzenzüchtung, or GPZ