Gerhard Gompper studied Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen, where he received his Physics Diploma and Ph.D. in Physics in the group of Herbert Wagner. After a postdoctoral stay with Michael Schick at the University of Washington in Seattle, he returned to Munich to earn his habilitation. An assignment as a staff scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute for Colloid- and Interface Science in Berlin-Teltow from 1994 to 1999 preceded...