Born in Germany, he received his first degree from the Freie Universität Berlin. Before joining the St Andrews faculty he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, UK. In his research, he concentrates on vocal communication in marine mammals and the evolution of complexity in animal communication and cognition. He joined the Sarasota Dolphin Research Project in 2001, recordings vocalizations and conducting playback experiments on bottlenose dolphins.