Education: diploma degree in physics from the University of Erlangen in 1991. 1991 to 1994 he worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering of National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. 1994 to1996 he was with the R & D group of Tamarack Technologies Inc. in Taiwan. In 1996 he joined the Optical Information Technology group at the University of Hagen. On 8 April 2003 he passed his graduation examination with honor.   Areas of activity: optical metrology, pattern recognition, optical neural networks, diffractive microoptics, optical interconnects, and planar-integration of micro-opto-electro- mechanical systems (MOEM).