Since October 2010 I'm working for Microsoft's search engine Bing where I'm currently a Principal Scientist Manager. I'm interested in all kinds of user measurement problems. How can one infer what a user is really looking for given just a query and some interaction data?
From September 2006 until September 2010 I was researching at DFKI and the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. In June 2010 I sucessfully defended my PhD thesis advised by Andreas Dengel where I focused on the intersection of eye tracking and personalized information retrieval. The aim was to use attention data of the user to improve the quality of the retrieval process, especially concerning desktop and web search. Attention data was obtained by user observation techniques such as state-of-the-art eye tracking.
In addition, I was also involved in reading research, particularly in inferring cognitive processes from eye movement patterns. To this end, I worked with Ralf Biedert on Text 2.0, a project aiming at making the reading process more fun and more efficient. You haven't checked out Text 2.0? Then do it now, it's really worth it, I promise ;-)
During the summer of 2008 I did an internship at Microsoft Research (Adaptive Systems and Interaction group), Redmond, USA, working together with Ed Cutrell and Merrie Morris. During the summer of 2009 I did an internship at Microsoft Research again, working together with Susan Dumais and Ed Cutrell.
During my undergrads I studied computer science at the University of Würzburg, Germany. My studies were focused on artificial intelligence, knowledge-based systems, bioinformatics, genetics, database systems, and robotics. Before and during my time in Würzburg I have done some research in the area of medical consultation systems.