Dr. Karl-Heinz Heise studied chemistry at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and radiochemistry and chemical nuclear engineering at the former Technical University of Dresden. Until the political change in 1989, he worked as a research associate at the Central Institute for Nuclear Research Rossendorf of the Academy of Sciences in various fields of isotope production and labeling chemistry. In 1990, he was appointed head of the Department of Organic Tracer Chemistry at the newly established Leibnitz Research Center Dresden-Rossendorf, now known as the Helmholtz Center. The department focused on environmental chemical processes related to the legacy of uranium mining in the former GDR. Dr. Heise is an enthusiastic amateur numismatist and mainly deals with courtly medallic art of the 19th century in Saxony.