From 2008 to 2014 I studied biology at the University of Freiburg, where I joined Prof. Thomas Speck's Plant Biomechanics Group in 2011, after deciding to pursue research on functional morphology and biomechanics of various role models from flora and fauna. During my bachelor thesis in 2011, I investigated the functional morphology and biomechanics of banana leaf stalks in Musa acuminata and Ensete ventricosum. Two years later (2013), I then began to analyse the attachment systems of the Mediterranean medicinal leech, Hirudo verbana, in my master's thesis. In the framework of the interdisciplinary research project ‘Green polyurethane chemistry for bio-inspired adaptive hybrid materials and single-origin nanocomposites’ (GreenPUR, 2014 – 2018) I completed my doctorate focussing on morphological and structural adaptations of the resurrection plant Ramonda myconi to severe water stress and related my findings to its desiccation-sensitive relative Monophyllaea horsfieldii (both Gesneriaceae). As of July 2018, I work as a PostDoc within the interdisciplinary research project ‘Biomimetic vacuum handling systems: energy reduction in vacuum handling by reducing dead volumes using biomimetic approaches’ (BiVaS), in which I apply my deepened understanding of the functional morphology and biomechanics of biological suction attachment systems to help develop biomimetic suction devices for energy-efficient vacuum handling technologies.