He has received his Diploma (MSc-equivalent) in Physics from the University of Göttingen in 1996 and his PhD from the University of Newcastle, UK, in 1999. After two post-docs at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and Tulane University in New Orleans, he joined the faculty of USF in 2006. Since 2014 he is also a Hans Fischer Fellow at the Technical University of Munich. His current research interests are mainly in oxide surfaces, photocatalysis, materials science of graphene and other 2D materials. His over 90 peer-reviewed articles received more than 700 citations in 2014 alone and his H-index is currently 28 (ISI citation index).