My fascination for numbers started very early on. As a small boy I used to walk around parking lots, look at all the numbers on the license plates and try to memorize them, while the rest of my family would sit in the restaurant and eat. As I grew older, the numbers got bigger and my interest in the vastness of the universe became apparent. I longed to explain everything around me and to really understand how things work and behave the way they do. So I started studying physics at the University of Bern and stayed there until I got my PhD.I am still fascinated by the fact that we can accurately describe natural processes and phenomena as well as sociocultural life by an abstract mathematical formalism.