I studied chemistry at the University of Kent at Canterbury, where I was awarded a first class honours Bachelor of Science in 1970. I obtained my PhD. from the Queen’s University Belfast in 1973 after working on the thermochemistry and solid-phase properties of adamantane and diamantane derivatives. After two years as an Imperial Chemical Industries Postdoctoral Fel¬low in Belfast, I moved in 1975 to Princeton University as a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow working for Paul Schleyer. I then followed Schleyer to the Institut für Organische Chemie of the Univer¬sität Erlangen-Nürnberg in 1976. I am currently Technical Director of the Computer-Chemie-Centrum in Erlangen.

My research areas include the development and application of quantum mechanical and classical simulation methods in inorganic, organic and biological chemistry, electron-transfer theory and the simulation of reaction mechanisms, especially enzymatic, and the mechanisms of signal-transduction processes. I am the developer of the semiempirical molecular orbital programme VAMP, which is marketed as a compute-engine in Accelrys’ Materials Studio Modelling package and of the surface-property package ParaSurf, which is marketed by Cepos InSilico Ltd, a UK-based software company co-owned by four British and German Universities of which I am a director. In December 2009, a 100% owned subsidiary company, Cepos InSilico GmbH, was founded in Erlangen.