In 1989, on the day that the Berlin Wall came down, I left for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to work as a Visiting Scientist at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) on its Autonomous Driving Project. My original plan was for a 2-year stay. However, I extended it to attend graduate school and, in 1997, I graduated with a PhD in Robotics.

It was in Pittsburgh where I met my wife, Theona.

In subsequent years, I worked for several small start-up companies as CEO / CTO, and in engineering for two large corporations, in the technical fields of Autonomous Driving, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, and in the Petrochemical and Nuclear industries.

I moved to California in 2006 and became a US citizen in 2019.

I and my family have a long history with California. In 1958, my mother emigrated to the United States and lived and worked in San Francisco for several years, moving back to Germany in 1961 to marry my father. In 1968, my uncle, her brother, came to California to work as an engineer in Palo Alto. His daughter, my cousin, was born in Stanford in 1969. The family reluctantly returned to Munich, Germany, at the end of 1970, due to the recession and unfavorable job market conditions in California at that time.

My interests are wide-ranging — from engineering and technology, to photography, and other hobbies; I am an experienced sailor, backcountry skier and hiker, and love to travel and explore different cultures. Apart from these, I have also always had an interest in politics, governance, and civil rights.