Received his PhD in physics from Heidelberg University in 2011. He has worked in ice core and glaciological research at institutions in Germany, USA and Austria before receiving a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship at the University of Venice (www.unive.it/gold-ice).
He has participated in numerous field campaigns on remote glaciers in the European Alps, Kilimanjaro, Greenland and Antarctica. His recent focus lies on ice core research with laser ablation inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS).