I was born in 1984 in Bergisch Gladbach. From 2004 to 2010 I studied biochemical engineering at the Technische Universität Braunschweig and chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. After having finished my internship and diploma thesis at Evonik Industries AG I accepted a position as research assistant at the Institute of Biochemical Engineering and worked at the project “Biofilmmechanik – Numerische und experimentelle Untersuchung der mechanischen Beanspruchung von Biofilmsystemen”. Supported by the DFG and Max Buchner Research Foundation I developed a physico-chemical biofilm model based on hydrogels and validated it with real single culture biofilms. I received my Doctorate degree in Engineering (Dr.-Ing.) after having defended my PhD thesis successfully in June 2014.