He earned his medical degree from the University of Giessen, Germany, School of Medicine and his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the University of Giessen, Germany. He completed a Clinical Research Fellowship and a Clinical ICU Fellowship at the University of Wuerzburg. He held faculty positions at the University of Wuerzburg and the University of Louisville, Kentucky before he was recruited to build up and lead the Perioperative Clinical Research Core at UCSF. He has authored or coauthored numerous original articles, reviews, abstracts and other publications. His research is highly regarded through out the world as reflected by being invited to give refresher course lectures for all major anesthesia societies.