Born in March 1951 in Neustadt/Weinstraße in Germany, I have been educated in Argentina, Germany and Turkey, receiving my Abitur (A levels) at Alman Lisesi Istanbul in 1969. From 1969 until 1974, I studied Informatik at the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe, being a member of the first cohort after this curriculum was established in Germany. My Diplom thesis (entitled Beiträge zur Petrinetztheorie) was supervised in Karlsruhe by Hans-Albrecht Schmid. After a brief interlude at the Institut für Datenverarbeitung im Rechtswesen at Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (1975 – mid 1976), I took up positions as a Research Associate, first with Peter Lauer, and then with Brian Randell, at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1976 – 1981). With Peter and Brian as my supervisors, I earned my PhD from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne early in 1982, the title of my thesis being Semantics, Verification and Design of Concurrent Programs Using Atomic Actions. Between late 1981 and 1988, I had a position as a Wissenschaftlicher Angestellter at the Institut für Systemforschung, led by Carl Adam Petri, at the Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung near Bonn. During this time, I gave several regular lectures, mainly on semantics and the theory of programming, as part of the respective Computer Science curricula, both in Bonn and (on an intermediate temporary professorship position) in Paderborn. I gained a Habilitation degree from the University of Bonn in 1988, with a thesis entitled Kausale Semantik nichtsequentieller Programme. From September 1988 onwards, I had professorial positions, first at an associate level at the University of Paderborn (1988 – 1989), then as a full professor at the University of Hildesheim (1989 – 1996) and at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (1996 – now).

I am married to Monika Best, with five sons, David, Robert, Simon, Benjamin, and Andreas.

Inaugural speech delivered Dec. 14, 1988 at Bonn University (in German), .pdf

List of projects and publications 2000-2014, .pdf

Dated: May 2016.