He obtained his MSc (Physik-Diplom) from the Technische Universität München, and his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in physics from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. His PhD advisor was T W Hänsch. After a Postdoctoral position as Research Assistant for the Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurement of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), he joined the Niels Bohr Institute. He has been awarded the 2014 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics “for his outstanding contributions to photonics and optomechanics, in particular by developing a micro-frequency comb and a radio-to-optical mechanical transducer."