1996

Freie Universität Berlin
Habilitation (General and comparative linguistics)

1990-1993

Freie Universität Berlin
Ph.D. in Linguistics (Ekkehard König, principal advisor)

1989-1990

Moscow State University
Postgraduate Research Fellowship of German Academic Exchange Service

1988-1989

Universität zu Köln
M.A. in Slavic Studies, Linguistics, Indo-European Studies

1987-1988

State University of New York at Buffalo
M.A. in Linguistics

1985-1987

Universität zu Köln
Linguistics, Indo-European Studies, Slavic Studies

1983-1985 

Universität Wien
Linguistics, Indo-European Studies, Slavic Studies

1998-present

Member of scientific staff, Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, Leipzig

1997-98

Visiting scholar at the Università di Pavia

1995

Instructor, Summer Institute of the Linguistic Society of America, Albuquerque, New Mexico, July-August

1994-1996

Scientific Assistant (roughly, Assistant Professor), Department of English, Free University of Berlin

1990-1994

Program Assistant of the European Science Foundation
Program in Language Typology (Director: Ekkehard König, Freie Universität Berlin)

2007

1997-98

Heisenberg Fellowship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

1989

German Academic Exchange Service Postgraduate Fellowship for research at Moscow State University

1983-1989

Evangelisches Studienwerk fellowship for specially talented university students