MR studied psychology at the University of Würzburg, did his PhD at the University of Wuerzburg in 2001 and habilitated at the University of Giessen in 2005. In 2006 he became a full professor at the University of Bonn. There he is head of the section Personality & Biological Psychology. 

In total he had seven offers for full professorships and published over 170 peer reviewed journal articles. 

MR has obtained several awards for best teaching and best PhD student supervisor in the Biological & Psychophysiology Psychology section of the German Psychologist Association. 

He has obtained grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG), German Federal Research Foundation (BMBF), and the Daimler & Benz Foundation and has reviewed for about 50 different international journals and several research foundations. 

He runs his own genetic and endocrinological laboratories and is also an expert in genetic imaging. His main research interest is in the biological basis of individual differences in behaviour.