Helmut Cölfen completed his PhD on Analytical Ultracentrifugation of gels in 1993. After postdoctoral work on solution characterisation of complex biopolymers he joined the Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in 1995 where he was leading the projects "Biomimetic Mineralisation" and "Fractionating Colloid Analytics" in the colloid chemistry department. After habilitation in 2001 he became senior scientist at the MPI and private docent at the University of Potsdam. Since 2010, he is full professor for Physical Chemistry at the University of Konstanz. His current research is focussed on non classical crystallization, stable prenucleation clusters and additive controlled crystallisation as well as Analytical Ultracentrifugation.