Kai joined RWTH Aachen University's Computer Science Department as a member of technical staff in 1985. Since 1987,
he has been Head of Technical Staff at the 
Chair of Informatik 4 (Communication & Distributed Systems). He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh.
Kai is (co)-author/editor of a text book on data communication networks and, more recently, fourteen books on standards and standardisation processes, with a focus on the ICT sector. More than 170 of his papers have been published in conference proceedings, books, and journals. He has been on the programme committee and editorial board of numerous international conferences and journals, respectively, and has served as an external expert on evaluation panels of various European R&D programmes, on both technical and socio-economic issues. Kai is also Vice President of the European Academy for Standardisation (EURAS), as well as founder and editor-in-chief of the 'International Journal on IT Standards & Standardization Research', and of the 'Advances in Information Technology Standards and Standardization Research' book series.
