he obtained a "dr. phil." degree with a dissertation entitled "kunst und reflexion. untersuchungen zum verhältnis philipp otto runges zur philosophischen tradition" in 1982. afterwards, from 1982 to 1985, he was a research associate at freiburg university and then, from 1985 to 1991, at fu berlin, where he also obtained his habilitation in 1991, with the thesis "mundus combinatus. studien zur struktur der barocken naturphilosophie unid universalwissenschaft am beispiel athanasius kirchers sj (1602–1680)". from 1991 to 1996, he held a "heisenberg-professur" there. in addition to this, he was a visiting professor at charles university in prague in winter semester 1992/93 and the summer semester 1993. since 1996, he is a professor for philosophy at westfälische wilhelms-universität and director of the leibniz-forschungsstelle in münster, a branch of the göttingen academy of sciences and humanities dedicated to editing the philosophical manuscripts of gottfried wilhelm leibniz. from 2010 to 2012, he received an "opus magnum" scholarship for the work on his two-volume work "philosophie des humanismus und der renaissance". furthermore, he is the editor of a bilingual italian-german edition of the works of giordano bruno.