He received his medical degree from the Charité – Universitätsmedizin in Berlin, Germany. From 2003 to 2007, he studied cellular and subcellular mechanism of cue-conditioning in animal models of drug addiction in the neuropharmacology laboratory of Patricia Shinnick-Gallagher, PhD, at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. After graduating from the neurology residency training program at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, he remained in Cincinnati to complete a neurocritical care fellowship with an emphasis on epilepsy.