I earned a Diplom with distinction in Computer Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany. In my thesis I was designing for multimedia presentations in the early days of Multimedia Database Systems. The thesis “Transmission and Control of Interactive Multimedia Presentations in a Distributed Multimedia Database Environment“ was awarded with the Best Thesis Award, from the German National Research Center for IT (GMD), Germany in 1996.
Working as a researcher at the German National Research Center for IT (GMD, at the University of Ulm and the University of Vienna, I continued my research in Multimedia Information Systems. I received a Doctorate in Technical Sciences with distinction from the Technical University of Vienna, Austria in 2001. Key elements of the work from my dissertation and research on „Multimedia Document Models for Reuse and Adaptation” were accepted into the Proceedings of the IFIP Conference on Data Semantics in 1999 and selected for publication in the renowned journal ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications.
In 2002, I became appointed as an Assistant Professor for Multimedia and Internet Technologies at the Department of Computing Science, University of Oldenburg, Germany. Embedded in the visible and successful research in Computer Science at the University of Oldenburg and at the associated OFFIS Institut for IT in Oldenburg I developed a profile towards user-centered interactive multimedia Systems. In 2006, after offers from Klagenfurt and Vienna, I became an Associate Professor in Media Informatics and Multimedia-Systems and was promoted to Full Professor in 2013. Continuing my strong interest in joining digital media and user-centered experience in different domains and applications I founded the Human Machine Competence Cluster which I am heading as a chair until today.
I am an active member of the international research community and scientific societies. I am Associate Editor in Chief of the editorial board of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Multimedia Magazine and associate editor of the Springer Multimedia Tools and Applications (MTAP). I am a member of the ACM, the GI and the IEEE Computer Society. I am also member of the steering committee for the international SIGCHI conferences MobileHCI and AutomotiveUI.
During the last 20 years, my scientific results have been published in extremely competitive peer-reviewed international conferences, such as CHI, Pervasive, and MobileHCI, each having competitive acceptance rates ranging from 13% to 22%, as well as internationally recognized journals. Google Scholar’s calculation shows that I have achieved a Hirsch Index of 37. Overall I have published more than 200 articles in competitive conferences, workshops, journals and books; served as a member on the technical program committees of more than 170 renowned conferences and workshops; and successfully acquired, led, and managed over 40 national and international scientific research projects.
Over the last two decades I have successfully established formal and informal collaboration with many international researchers. The exchange is materialized in visits, supervision of PhD students, and in joint international projects.