Prof Dr. Alf Mews studied chemical engineering in Aachen (Diploma in 1988) and Chemistry in Siegen (Diploma in 1992) after which he joined the group of Prof. Horst Weller at the Hahn-Meitner-Institute in Berlin. He received his PhD in 1994 while working on the preparation of semiconductor nanocrystals. In 1995 he took a DFG fellowship to work on nanocrystal TEM investigations and different spectroscopic techniques in the group of Prof. Paul Alivisatos in Berkeley, California. In 1996 he moved to Munich to work on single molecule spectroscopy in the group of Prof. Christian Braeuchle and in 1997 joined the group of Prof. Thomas Basche in Mainz where he finished his Habilitation in 2003 entitled: "Investigation of nano structures with microscopic methods: Material science on the nanometer scale". Since 2004 he is a Professor for Physical Chemistry at the University of Siegen.