I studied agricultural biology at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany, and wrote a doctorate thesis on a breeding topic in pigs. In 1985 I switched to poultry science and started to work on my postdoctoral lecture qualification under supervision of Prof. Siegfried Scholtyssek, which I finished in 1990. From this time on I worked as a researcher in poultry science until my retirement in 2019 and was interested in all aspects of poultry science. In 1999 I was appointed as extraordinary professor. The whole time, my special focus was on the quality of the poultry products eggs and meat. Besides, I dealt with organic poultry production, mobile houses for laying hens and broilers, use of slow growing broilers and dual-purpose chickens, yolk pigmentation, nutrient digestibility of organic feeding stuffs, impact of fibre in poultry diets, functional eggs and poultry meat, to give some examples.

Since 1986 I am a member of the German branch of WPSA, in 2020 I have been elected as president. In 1991 I became a member of working group 4 ‘Egg Quality’ and 5 ‘Poultry Meat Quality’ of the European Federation of WPSA and I was the chairperson of WG 5 from 2002 to 2010. Since 2010 I am the Secretary & Treasurer of the European Federation. Besides these functions, I was the Editor-in chief of the journal European Poultry Science which is the organ of the German Branch of WPSA. Besides these activities, I am the chairperson of the Committee for Poultry Production of the German Agricultural Society (DLG) since 2005.