Leif Schröder studied Physics in Göttingen and Heidelberg where he obtained a PhD in Physics while being affiliated with the German Cancer Research Center to investigate the quantum mechanical fine structure of in vivo NMR spectra for medical diagnostic purposes. His subsequent stay at the University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was supported by an Emmy Noether fellowship from the German Research Foundation to work with hyperpolarized xenon biosensors. He is a co- developer of the Hyper-CEST technique for which he received national and international prizes, including the IUPAP Young Scientist Award in Medical Physics. He further received an Emmy Noether Grant in 2009 to set up an MRI methodology development group at the FMP, Berlin, where he also managed the ERC Project BiosensorImaging (2009-2014) and is currently heading the Molecular Imaging Group. His research focuses on the development of ultra-sensitive MRI contrast agents.