I am a Professor or Plant Cell Biology at the University of California at Riverside. My research program is focussed on Plant Immunity with an emphasis on the regulation plant defense genes. Currently I am teaching biochemistry-related undergraduate classes and occasionally a graduate level seminar on Plant Immune Biology. I was born and raised in Germany. After finishing high school in Bonn, I received two years of training at the Rheinische Akademie in Cologne to become a chemistry technician. I then started an undergraduate program on Biology at the University of Mainz. After 2&1/2 years I switched to the University of Cologne where I received a diploma degree in Biology (equivalent of M.S. degree). From 1996 to 1999 I worked as a graduate student at the Cologne Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding Research under Dr. Imre Somssich and Professor Klaus Hahlbrock on molecular roles of WRKY transcription factors in plant immunity. After I received my Dr. rerum nat. degree (equivalent to PhD) in summer 1999, I continued for six months as a postdoc at the same institute, before moving to Chapel Hill (NC, USA) to start at the University of North Carolina post-doctoral work with Professor Jeff Dangl on genetic aspects of plant immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana. For my studies on WRKY transcription factors I received in 2000 the Otto Hahn Medal of the German Max-Planck Society. In summer 2003 I became a faculty member of the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences (BPSC) and a member of the Center for Plant Cell Biology (CEPCEB), where I started independent research on plant defense gene regulation and synthetic elicitors (drug-like compounds which induce plant immune responses). Besides leading a research program and teaching, I currently serve as vice-chair for teaching in my department and co-director of the NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program on Next Generation Plant Biology of CEPCEB. Furthermore I am a member of the Institute for Integrative Plant Biology and a cooperative faculty member of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at UC-Riverside.