Graduated from University of Cologne with a diploma in physics, 1983; doctorate degree in physics, 1986; was selected as double for Soyuz TM-14; scientific employee at the DLR; hobbies: Reading, spending time with his family, amateur theatre, soccer, carate; he has been the Crew Operations Manager for the two Soyuz Taxi missions with ESA astronauts to the ISS in 2002; as ESA's Operations Manager from a duty station in ESTEC, Noordwijk/The Netherlands, he then directed the two nationally sponsored Soyuz missions in 2003 and 2004; from July to December 2006, he was supervising as ESA's Operations Manager from the Columbus Control Centre, near Munich, the preparation and flight operations for the first ISS long duration mission of an ESA astronaut named "Astrolab"; he is presently heading the Flight Operations Division within ESA's ISS Operations department and located at the Columbus Control Centre near Munich; in this function he is directing a team of ESA Mission Directors managing the first Columbus laboratory delivery flight of 2007 and the Columbus activities thereafter.