He studied Chemistry (Bsc./MSc.) and Physics (BSc.) at the Technical University Munich and received his Ph.D. in 1995 (Physical Chemistry/Instrumental Analytics). After PostDoc and Habilitation Ralf Zimmermann was appointed 2001 as Associated Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Augsburg. Since 2008 he is Full Professor at the University of Rostock (Analytical Chemistry) as well as head of the cooperation group “Comprehensive Molecular Analytics” at the Helmholtz Zentrum München. Since 2012 he also is spokesperson of the Virtual Helmholtz Institute HICE, which is addressing the health effects of aerosols (www.vice-vi.eu). His research interests are in the field of aerosol characterization (physical and chemical properties) and health effects of aerosols. Furthermore he is has a strong interest in the development of application of mass spectrometry based analytical technology and instruments: This includes photo ionisation mass spectrometry, comprehensive multidimensional separation technologies and hyphenated chromatographic/mass spectrometric approaches.