My research mission is to understand biogenesis and function of photosynthesis, the central biological process that supplies the biosphere of Earth with energy. My research interests include:

Chloroplast, light, life
Plants and environment
Chloroplast RNA polymerase
retrograde signalling

Details: research interests

Curriculum vitae

Academic degrees

2003
Habilitation and venia legendi in Botany
Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (FSU)

1991 - 1994
Thesis | Dr. rer. nat.
Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB)

1985 - 1990
Study of Biology | Diploma
Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB)
Main subjects: Botany, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Physiological Chemistry
Academic appointments

Since 4/2019
Professor (W3) for Plant Physiology | Institute for Botany, Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

2012 - 2019
Full Professor at Université Grenoble-Alpes (UGA) | France
Head of Research Team “Nucleo-plastidic interaction: Chloroplast biogenesis and redox control” at the Laboratoire Physiologie Cellulaire et Végétale

2011 - 2012
Associate Professor | Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (FSU)

2005 - 2011
Assistant Professor | FSU Jena
Head of Independent Junior Research Group “Plant Acclimation to Environment: Protein Analysis by Mass Spectrometry”

2001 - 2005
Scientific Assistant | Department for Plant Physiology, FSU Jena

1999 - 2001
Postdoctoral Fellow | Department for Plant Physiology, FSU Jena

1997 - 1999
Postdoctoral Fellow | Plant Cell Physiology and Molecular Biology, Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB)

1995 – 1997
DFG Post-Doc-Fellowship
Research project on “Redox control of plastid gene expression” | University of Lund (Sweden) and RUB
Membership in collaborative research programs

2024 - 2027
SPP 2237 MAdLand (Molecular Adaptations to Land) | Göttingen, Germany

2015 - 2019
Lab of Excellence GRAL (“Grenoble Alliance” for Structural Research) | France

2007 - 2013
DFG Research Group FOR 804 “Retrograde signalling” | Berlin, Germany

2002 - 2006
DFG Research Group FOR 387 “Redox Regulation” | Bielefeld, Germany

2001 - 2004
SFB 604 “Multifunctional signal proteins” | Jena, Germany
Reviewing activities
Manuscript reviews for all leading journals in Life and Plant Sciences including:

Cell, Science, Nature, Nature Plants, Nature Communications, PNAS, Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, Plant Journal, New Phytologist, Journal of Experimental Botany, Planta, Frontiers in Plant Sciences, Transactions of the Royal Society, Molecular Plant and many more.

Reviews of project proposals for national and international funding agencies including:

German Research Foundation (DFG), European Research Council (ERC), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), National Science Foundation (NSF) USA, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) UK, Swiss National Fund, Austrian Science Foundation, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) Belgium, Israelian Science Foundation (ISF), Agence Nationale de Recherche (ANR), France

Invited Opponent and PhD defence committee member:

Sorbonne Universite (France), University of Umea (Sweden), University of Linköping (Sweden), University of Lund (Sweden)
Organisation of national and international meetings

2018
Jacques-Monod-Conference on „Retrograde Signalling” | Roscoff (France)
130 participants

2014
„Plastids: Differentiation and communication” | Grenoble (France)
80 participants

2012
„10^th Meeting of Middle-German Plant Physiology” | Jena (Germany)
65 participants
Invited speaker at international conferences

2025
International Conference on Chloroplast Research | Seeon (Deutschland)
Gordon Research Conference on Chloroplast Biotechnology | Tuscany (Italien)

2022
International Meeting of TR175 „Chloroplast: From Genes to Systems” | Kloster Irsee (Deutschland)
FEBS Meeting „Chloroplast signalling” | Primosten (Croatia)

2020
International Meeting „Organelle and Stress Biology” | Shanghai (China)

2015
Gordon Research Conference on „Chloroplast Biotechnologie” | Ventura Beach, California (USA)

2014
ESF/EMBO Workshop: Biology of plastids | Putulsk (Poland)
Engagement in the research system

Numerous activities during the career. Some examples of recent years:

since 2023
Chief editor of section Photomorphogenesis in the journal Frontiers in Photobiology

2022
Head of Benchmarking Committee for the Biosciences at LUH, Member of LUH delegation establishing a cooperation with Universite Paris-Saclay, France

2020
Editor of special issue “Retrograde signaling” for Transactions of the Royal Society, UK

2019 and 2023
Member of DFG Evaluation Board for TRR175 “The Green Hub”

2019
Member of Scientific Advisory Board for the a new Master Study “Molecular Cell Biology”, University Bielefeld
Supervision of researchers in early career phases

Habilitations

2015 Dr. Livia Merendino CR2 CNRS Grenoble, France (now Universite Paris-Saclay); 2018 Dr. Robert Blanvillain MCU Universite Grenoble-Alpes, France

Dissertations

Dr. Vidal Fey (2005, now Group leader University Turku, Finland), Dr. Raik Wagner (2007, now permanent Scientist Umea Plant Science Center, Sweden), Dr. Katharina Bräutigam 2008, now Professor at University of Toronto, Canada); Dr. Lars Dietzel (2009, now permanent Scientist University Frankfurt, Germany) Dr. Sebastian Steiner (2011, now permanent Scientist KWS Company Einbeck, Germany), Dr. Yvonne Schröter (2014, now Scientist KWS, Germany); Dr. Monique Liebers (2017, now Scientist LUH, Germany), Dr. Maha Chieb (2019, now Scientist UCLA Davies, USA), Dr. Carolina Cozzi (2024).

Courses

At our institute, our teaching mission is to provide top-notch education to undergrad and grad students through a wide range of subjects, including Plant Physiology, Photobiology, Evolution, Plant Stress Physiology, Organelle Targeting, and Computer-Assisted Sequence Analysis. Our goal is to equip students with the knowledge and practical skills they need to thrive in today’s fast-evolving scientific landscape. We blend theory with hands-on experience, encouraging students to think critically and creatively. By integrating the latest research into our teaching, we aim to inspire curiosity and drive the next generation of scientists to tackle important challenges in plant biology and beyond.

Currently, we teach the following main lectures and labs for all students in the BSc. Biology courses and BSc. Education courses

Evolution (Winter term)
Plant Physiology (Summer term)

Furthermore, we teach the follwing classes at the MSc. level:

Photobiology (Summer term)
Evolutionary adaptations to the environment (Summer and Winter terms)
Organelle Targeting (Winter term)
Bioinformatics (Winter term)