Academic positions

• Since 2020 Spokesperson DFG Collaborative Research Center (CRC/TRR) 289 “Treatment Expectation”
• Since 2020 Deputy Spokesperson, DFG Review Board Neuroscience (Fachkollegium 206), German Research Foundation (DFG)
• Since 2020 Co-Director, Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioural Sciences, University Medicine Essen, Germany
• Since 2020 Director, Interdisciplinary Center for Pain Medicine and Translational Pain Research, University Medicine Essen, Germany
• Since 2017 Principal Investigator, project A11 in Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1280
• “Extinction Learning”
• Since 2016 Founding Coordinator, Behavioural and Clinical Neurosience Core, Graduate School of Biomedical Science (BOME), University Duisburg-Essen, Germany
• Since 2016 Elected Review Board Member (Fachkollegiatin), Review Board Neuroscience (Fachkollegium 206), German Research Foundation (DFG)
• Since 2013 Full Professor of Clinical Neuroscience and Head Interdisciplinary Pain Medicine and Backpain Center, Department of Neurology, University Medicine Essen, Germany
• Since 2013 Principal Investigator, Erwin L. Hahn Institute, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
• 2013 Board Qualification Pain Medicine
• 2011-2020 Deputy Spokesperson and Steering Committee Member, DFG Research Group (FOR) 1328 “Expectation and Conditioning as Basic Processes of the Placebo and Nocebo response”
• 2011-2015 Principal Investigator, project A4 in Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 936
• “Multi-Site Communication in the Brain”
• Since 2010 Mentor, various academic mentoring programs, e.g. University of Duisburg-Essen, Ruhr University Bochum, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Technical University of Munich, Germany
• 2009-2013 Research Group Leader, BMBF funded neuroscience group “Neurobiology of Pain Cognition Interactions, a systems neuroscience approach” and Attending Physician of Neurology, Depts. of Neurology and Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
• 2008-2009 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Pain Group, Oxford Centre for Funktional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• 2008 Board Qualification Neurology

Further activities

• Since 2012 Science Board of the German Association for the Study of Pain
• Since 2018 Elected Member, Research Committee (Forschungskommission), Faculty of Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
• 2020 Chair German Pain Congress
• Since 2022 Elected Council Member, International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)
• 2023 Designated Chair and local organizer of the 4th conference Society for International Placebo Studies (SIPS)