Born in 1946 in Fulda, Hesse; completed his Abitur in Hanover; studied psychology at the Institute of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum; research assistant at the Language Psychology and Information Processing Research Group (headed by Prof. Dr Hans Hörmann); Topic of his Diplom thesis: ‘Auditory Scanning and Laterality’, supervised by Prof. Dr Hans Hörmann.

Awarded a PhD with the thesis “Emotional Foundations of Aesthetic Judgement” (supervised by Prof. Dr Johannes Engelkamp and Prof. Dr Peter Orlik following the death of Prof. Hörmann; Saarbrücken); Habilitation thesis: “On the Relationship between Consciousness and Sound”; research into sound processing and visual aesthetics, research stays in Japan; research in recent years in the field of psychological museology. Director of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Oldenburg 2007–2010.

Memberships:

• International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  See: www.science-of-aesthetics.org.
  
• German Psychological Society (DGPs).
  See www.dgps.de
  
• German Society for Music Psychology
  www.music-psychology.de
  
• International Council of Museums (ICOM).
  See www.icom.museum
  
• Gustav-Theodor-Fechner Society, Leipzig
  See www.uni-leipzig.de/~fechner/verein.htm
  
• Oldenburgische Landschaft
  www.oldenburgische-landschaft.de

Positions outside the University of Oldenburg:

• 1985–2008 Secretary-General of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  
• 2008–2012 President of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  
• 2013 Appointed Honorary Lifetime President of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  
• Since 1995, member of the Board of Advisory Editors of the journal *Empirical Studies of the Arts* (Baywood Publishing Company, USA) – the official journal of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  Online.
  
• 1995–2004 Editor of the newsletter of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (published in the journal *Empirical Studies of the Arts*; ISSN 0276-2374).
  
• 2005–2010 Editor of the electronic newsletter of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA). Online
  
• 1996–2005 Member of the scientific editorial board of the German Society for Music Psychology for the *Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie*
  
• 2005–2013 Co-editor of the *Jahrbuch für Musikpsychologie* (Göttingen: Hogrefe) published by the German Society for Music Psychology (ISBN 3-8017-1141-2).
  
• 2011 Involvement in the accreditation of degree programmes atthe Accreditation Council – Foundation for the Accreditation of Degree Programmes in Germany(AHPGS)
  
  
• 2014 Appointed to the Accreditation Commission (Accreditation Council – Foundation for the Accreditation of Degree Programmes in Germany; AHPGS)
  

Main areas of work

Since 1995: Evaluation and visitor studies of educational institutions (museums, environmental education centres); Museology; Research: (a) informal lifelong learning, (b) temporal orientation; (c) issues relating to personal identity (cultural, spatial, national).