I have been a practicing German-English technical translator since 1969, with some time off to complete a Ph.D. in German literature at the University of Michigan and to serve in the U.S. Foreign Service.

During my early career I was mainly involved with automotive engineering and quality assurance work. In the 1980s I was the principal staff translator for BASF Corporation in the United States, mainly translating chemical R&D and patent documents, but also the full range of enterprise documentation. In the 90s I continued to translate chemical and pharmaceutical patents and also work extensively in the fields of banking and investment. In the last 10 years I have been concentrating on medical and pharmaceutical documentation.

I am passionate about integrating the best-available translation quality assurance and productivity tools. In the late 1980s I was one of the very first freelance translators to embrace Trados technology. Over the course of my career I have also extensively used other TM tools like Star Transit, Déjà vu, and SDLX. I am constantly searching for new and better solutions to push the boundaries of quality and productivity. I have become a passionately enthusiastic user of MemoQ, which integrates seamlessly with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and also achieves unparalleled quality through its Quality Assurance add-in module. I have also built up extensive know-how in converting .PDF files to virtually rogue-code-free .DOC files so that the full power of TM tools can be exploited.

When not translating I enjoy playing music (jazz & classical: reeds; and folk/pop: guitar), cooking, hiking and trail running.