Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

Education and positions

since 2015 (October) Full Professor (W3) at the ZMBH, University of Heidelberg & Member of the DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance
2014 - 2015 Full Professor at the Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2010 - 2015 Group Leader in the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
2007 - 2014 Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2003 - 2007 Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at the Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2001 - 2003 Postdoctoral position at the University of Chicago, Department of Ecology and Evolution (mentor: Dr. Wen–Hsiung Li)
2001 Postdoctoral position (02/2001 – 07/2001) at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (lab of Dr. Svante Pääbo)
1997 - 2001 Ph.D. degree (Summa cum laude) awarded by the University of Leipzig (02/2001). Ph.D. thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (mentor: Dr. Svante Pääbo)
1992 - 1997 Master of Science degree awarded 11/1997. Biology studies first at the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany (until 1995) and then at Uppsala University, Sweden



Awards, honors and fellowships

2026 Ernst Schering Prize
2026 Appointed to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
2022 NOMIS Foundation Researcher Grant
2021 European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant
2021 Award for Outstanding Research Achievements (Heidelberg University)
2014 Cloëtta Prize (Max Cloëtta Foundation)
2014 Jürg Tschopp Life Science Prize (University of Lausanne)
2014 Election to EMBO Membership (European Molecular Biology Organization)
2014 European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant
2010 Friedrich Miescher Award (Swiss Society for Biochemistry)
2009 European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant
2008 Basic Life Science Award, Faculty of Biology & Medicine, University of Lausanne
2005 EMBO Young Investigator Award (European Molecular Biology Organization)
2004 Nomination for the Heinz Maier Leibnitz young investigator award by the Max Planck Society
2003 Emmy Noether group leader funding from the German Research Council – declined (instead Assistant Professorship in Lausanne)
2002 Emmy Noether postdoctoral fellowship from the German Research Council
2001 EMBO long–term fellowship (European Molecular Biology Organization)
1999 Sino–German Young Scholar (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)