2010- now: Full professor of Geoinformation Science and Remote Sensing at Wageningen University

2005- 2010: Dr. Habil in Geography and Coordinator of Global Observations of Forest Cover and Land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) Land Cover Project Office of the European Space Agency (ESA) at Friedrich Schiller University Jena

2000- 2004: Graduate student researcher (PhD) at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB)

1995- 2000: Undergraduate and graduate study (MSc) in Geography with subsidiary subjects Public Law and Urban /Regional Planning at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and BAUHAUS University Weimar, Germany