ProfessionalTraining

• 1973 - 1979 Study of Human Medicine, Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, one-year practice in the field of anesthesia (selected direction).
• 1979 Approbation in Medicine.
• 1979 Doctor of Medicine (very good), Faculty of Medicine of the University of Freiburg (03.12.1979) (under the direction of Prof. Dr. med. G.V. Löhr). Thesis subject: "Study of the kinetics of binding of strophanthin with the membrane of an intact erythrocyte: the interaction of intracellular sodium and potassium ions, the role of proton concentration and membrane potential."
• 1980 - 1983 Scholarship of the German Research Foundation and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (special program for the promotion of especially gifted young scientists), Department of Biochemistry (Prof. Dr. D. Pette), University of Konstanz.
• 1981 - 1983 Scientific internship at the University College London (under the direction of Prof. Dr. G. Vrbova), studies devoted to the physiological analysis of dystrophic muscles.
• 1983 - 1984 Scholarship (granted by the German Research Foundation) at the Institute of Neurology, Columbia University, New York.
• 1988 Habilitation, Neurology (thesis devoted to mitochondrial myopathies) and Venia legendi.

Professional Career

• 1984- 1987 Work at the public and private hospitals, in the Intensive Care Unit of the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital Würzburg.
• 1987 Work in the Emergency Unit (for one year) in the Department of Psychiatry at the University Hospital Würzburg.
• 1987 Neurologist.
• 1988 Clinical Senior Physician.
• 1988 - 1989 Special training in Neurophysiology.
• 1990 - 1996 University Professor of Neurology (C3), Senior Physician and Deputy Head of the department, Head of the Laboratory of Metabolism and Energy, Head of the Laboratory of Biochemical and Morphological Muscular Activities.
• 1992 - 1996 Member of the Council of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Würzburg.
• 1992 - 1996 Member of the Ethics Committee of the University of Würzburg.
• Since 1996, Head of the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden.
• Since 2005, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Technical University of Dresden.
• 2009 - 2010 1st Chairman of the German Society of Neurology.
• 2011 - 2012 President of the European Society of Neurology.

Awards and Honors

• 1984 Young Histochemists Award of the International Histochemical Society.
• 1987 Award of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.
• 1988 Heinrich Pett Prize of the German Society of Neurology.
• 1988 Prize on the occasion of the 400th Anniversary since the founding of the University of Würzburg.
• 1991 Myopathy Prize of the German Society of Muscular Diseases.
• 1992 1st Poster Prize, Congress of German Neurologists in Saarbrücken.
• 1993 Award for the research on the central nervous system in geriatrics.

Research Focuses

• Biochemical studies of energy metabolism and its disorders in the central nervous system, muscles, fibroblasts and blood cells.
• Since 01.05.1986, Study of mitochondrial cytopathies with the support of the German Research Foundation and Research Laboratories of the Department of Neurology of the University Hospital.
• 1989 - 1992 Muscle Fiber Measurement with the support of the research project of the Wilhelm Sander Foundation.
• Since February 1992, Study of biochemical and molecular biological aspects of Parkinson's disease, with the support of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology, Frankfurt-Würzburg Union.
• Since September 1992, Study of the basal ganglia and their diseases with the support of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology, Marburg-Göttingen-Würzburg Union.