Stephan Förster received his chemistry diploma (1989) and his Ph.D. (1992) from the University of Mainz, working under the supervision of Manfred Schmidt and Gerhard Wegner at the Max-Planck-Insitut für Polymerforschung, Mainz. After a postdoctoral stay in the group of Frank S. Bates at the University of Minnesota, he worked as a research assistant in the group of Markus Antonietti at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung, Golm. He obtained his habilitation from the University of Potsdam in 1999 and was appointed full professor at the University of Hamburg in 2000. In 2010 he was a visiting professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and became professor and chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Bayreuth. His research interest focuses on nanoparticle and polymer self-assembly, nanocomposites, drug carriers, microfluidics, and scattering techniques.