Following a general interest in astronomy I started first astronomical observations already in basic school. At the age of 12 I started to visit the meetings of the BAV ("Bundesdeutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Veränderliche Sterne") to learn how to observe and analyze variable stars especially eclipsing binaries. 

I studied physics at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and did my diploma and my PhD at the Astrophysical Institute and University Observatory Jena.

Today my main research field are transiting exoplanets in particular the search for transiting planets and the analysis of transit timing variations in already known transiting exoplanets. Additionally I'm also interested in the observations and analysis of variable stars especially eclipsing binaries. I'm involved in several research activities concerning the photometric observation of transiting planets and variable stars, including the search for transiting planets in young open clusters with the "Young Exoplanet Transit Initiative" (YETI), the observation of eclipsing binaries to search for eclipse timing variations within the "DWARF project" and the "Search for extrasolar planets by observations of transit timing variations" (TTV@YETI).  I'm a very experienced observer. I observed >150 nights at the University Observatory Jena between 2006-2013, 15 nights at the 2.2 m telescope on Calar Alto, Spain between 2010-2012, and one night at the National Observatory Venezuela. 

From 2013 October to 2016 September I was a Research Fellow at the European Space Agency (ESA). My project included the analysis of Transit Timing for the CoRoT planets and ground-based high precision follow-up photometry. I got involved in the Spectrograph for ESA's Optical Ground Station (OGS), a 1-m telescope at the Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife.
From Oct 2016 to May 2017 I was a Junior Fellow in the Marie S. Curie FRIAS COFUND Fellowship Programme working on the "Variability and transiting extrasolar planets in young open clusters".
Currently I'm a PostDoc at the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Tuebingen where I'm working on the activity and rotation of M type stars.

Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics Tübingen (IAAT)

List of Publications (pdf)

Sterne und Weltraum 10/2011 (german)

Astronomie + Raumfahrt im Unterricht 6/2011 (german)

PhD thesis (german)