He graduated in chemistry from the University of Freiburg (Germany) in 1999 and received a PhD in physical-chemistry from the University of Kiel (Germany) in 2004. In the same year he joined NIZO food research (The Netherlands) as a research scientist and project leader. Since 2007, he leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists from several research institutes at TI Food and Nutrition (The Netherlands). His current research interest is to develop knowledge on the dynamic sensory perception of foods, especially texture and taste, in relation to food structure, breakdown properties and food oral processing behavior. The objective of this research is to support the development of foods with reduced salt, fat and sugar content and excellent sensory performance. He is (co-) author of 2 patents and over 30 peer-reviewed publications.