In the past, I was mainly involved in rheological research. In the last years, the topic has expanded to cover most aspects of soft matter physics and, increasingly, also soft matter chemistry. Additionally, I also started building up a second topic based on synthesis of semiconductive nanoparticles for solar cell and environmental applications. This means that currently, my “toolbox” contains several other tools, which I want to expand further as research topics and interests expand and develop further.<br><br>I define myself as a scientist interested in understanding the relationship between molecular structure and properties of materials. The materials I am interested in are polymers, gels, and self-assembled structures – both organic and inorganic as well as nano-structures. Especially, self-healing is of great interest to me.<br><br>Previously, the research was mostly carried out by a combination of chromatographic and rheological methods to assess the branching or crosslinking structure. Recently, I started getting involved in nanoparticle-synthesis and –characterization, photovoltaics and microfluidics as well. The reason for these steps into new research fields are my deep interest in understanding different areas of science.  During my PhD- and my PostDoc-experience, I cooperated with other research groups, who did the synthesis and chemical modification for me. In the last 2 years, these synthesis activities were developed in house, so that nowadays my group has the ability to synthesize materials from base chemicals and to characterize physically. As a consequence, my research activity recently has broadened significantly on the chemical side, while retaining the expertise and methods in the physical characterization. Furthermore, being involved in different fields allows for finding potentials for interdisciplinary collaborations, which always lead to the most interesting results.