His research work within the last 10 years focused mainly on mass transport and substrate utilization in complex biofilm systems. The general idea behind this research is the coupling of processes driven by physics on the one hand and biology on the other hand. The influence of physics in biofilm research is underestimated. Morphology and growth of biofilm structures are very often driven by physics and less influenced by biology. The soft money generated since 2005 both in 48 fundamental (BMBF and DFG) and industrial research (Veolia, Siemens) projects is around 4.2 M Euro.