The author received his PhD in physics from the University of Mainz in 2001, working with Lutz Schweikhard on molecular ions confined in a Penning trap. He then joined the group of Günter Werth and worked on precision measurements of the bound electron's magnetic moment in Penning traps. He extended this work as a research associate at Imperial College London in the group of Richard Thompson, and later joined Penning trap projects for precision spectroscopy at the GSI Helmholtz-Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.