I was born in the former German Democratic Republic and had an interest in geology since my teens. After finishing my diploma in Germany (equivalent to MSc), I did my PhD on a metamorphosed VMS deposit in NL, Canada, supervised by Steve Piercey and co-supervised by Paul Sylvester. After my PhD, I was a lecturer at Auburn University (Alabama, 2016-2018), a Research Associate with MERC (2018-2019), and was hired as Assistant Professor and Economic Geology at the University of Manitoba (2020-2024) before starting my current position at Laurentian University's Harquail School of Earth Sciences. My PhD research manifested my interest in ore mineralogy, hydrothermal deposit genesis, geochemistry, and exploration. My current research focuses on the metal tenor in metamorphosed hydrothermal deposits and how deformation impacts metal distribution from the micro-scale to the macro-scale. I use both fieldwork, microscopy, and various analytical tools in my research.