I studied Architecture & History (1991-1993) at the University of Dortmund, Mathematics & Philosophy (1993-1995) at the University of Bochum, Computer Science & Mathematics at the University of Sussex at Brighton (1995-1996), and Mathematics & Philosophy at Humboldt University at Berlin and Free University Berlin (1996- 2000).

In 2000, I obtained an M.Sc. degree (''Diplom in Mathematik'') from Humboldt University with a thesis on Kripke-type semantics for modal predicate logics, supervised by Marcus Kracht and Ronald B. Jensen.

Between 2001 and 2004 I worked with Frank Wolter in a DFG project on the combination of Modal and Description Logics, first, in the Intelligent Systems Department at the University of Leipzig, and later in the Logic and Computation Group at the University of Liverpool.

In 2004, I received my Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool with a thesis entitled "E-connections and Logics of Distance", supervised by Frank Wolter, and refereed by Wiebe van der Hoek and Melvin C. Fitting. I received a BCS/CPHC Distinguished Dissertations Award (Finalist) in the 2004/2005 competition.

I moved to Manchester in late 2004 as a member of the Information Management Group, where I worked with Ulrike Sattler in an EPSRC funded project on extending expressive Description Logics.

Since early 2007, I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Transregional Collaborative Research Center "Spatial Cognition" (SFB/TR 8) in Bremen, working with John Bateman, Joana Hois, and Till Mossakowski in the project OntoSpace which is concerned with ontologies as a backbone for spatial reasoning and cognition.