Manuel had been a research assistant of the project since 2008, before he became a full member of the team in 2021. He is involved in all aspects of the project, including research, database programming, yearly fieldwork, photography, and image editing.

He studied Philosophy, Sinology and East Asian Art History at Stuttgart University and Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, where he graduated 2012 with a thesis on the theory of art of the German philosopher Hans Heinz Holz (1927-2011).  He spent about two years studying abroad at Chinese Culture University Taipei, Sun Yat-sen University Kaoshiung, and Tsinghua University Beijing. 

In January 2013 he joined the Heidelberg Center for Asian an Transcultural Studies as a Graduate Student in the project Standards of Validity, pursuing research on modes of argumentation in dialogical texts from Late Imperial China for four years. Here he also worked one year as a substitute Assistant Professor at the chair of Intellectual History, Prof. Joachim Kurtz.

• “經石峪刻經研究史. The Historiography of Sutra Stone Valley.” In Zhongguo fojiao shijing: Shandong Sheng di si juan 中國佛教石經•山東省第四卷. Buddhist Stone Sutras in China: Shandong Province Volume 4, ed. by Wang Yongbo 王永波 and Lothar Ledderose, with the assistance of Robert E. Harrist Jr. (Wiesbaden and Hangzhou: Harrassowitz Verlag and 中國美術學院出版社 China Academy of Art Press: 2022), pp. 42-87.
• “Die Einheit der Sinne: Helmuth Plessner im Gespräch mit Hans Heinz Holz.” Aufhebung 17 (2022), pp. 88-103.
• edited with Sun Hua 孫華. Zhongguo fojiao shijing: Sichuan Sheng di wu juan 中國佛教石經•四川省第五卷. Buddhist Stone Sutras in China: Sichuan Province Volume 5.  (Wiesbaden and Hangzhou: Harrassowitz Verlag and 中國美術學院出版社 China Academy of Art Press: 2021)
• “A Moral Verdict of Reasonable Doubts: Ouyi Zhixu’s Argumentative Strategies in the Collections of Refutations against Vicious Doctrines.” In Powerful Arguments, edited by Martin Hofmann, Joachim Kurtz, and Ari Daniel Levine. Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2020. 
• “Review of Expressing the Heart's Intent: Explorations in Chinese Aesthetics. By Marthe Atwater Chandler. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017.” Journal of East Asian Studies vol. 18, no. 1 (July 2018), pp. 267-276.
• “Review of History of Logic in China: 5 Questions, 2015, edited by Fenrong Liu and Jeremy Seligman.” History of Humanities vol. 3, no. 1 (Spring 2018), pp. 202-204.
• “徂徠山: 研究史. Mount Culai: Research History.” In Zhongguo fojiao shijing: Shandong Sheng di san juan 中國佛教石經•山東省第三卷. Buddhist Stone Sutras in China: Shandong Province Volume 3, ed. by Wang Yongbo 王永波 and Tsai Suey-ling  蔡穗玲 (Wiesbaden and Hangzhou: Harrassowitz Verlag and 中國美術學院出版社 China Academy of Art Press: 2017), pp. 232-236, 247-256.
• “Review of Hu Minghui, China’s Transition to Modernity: The New Classical Vision of Dai Zhen. Seattle et al.: University of Washington Press, 2015.” Monumenta Serica 64.1 (2016), pp. 236-244
• with Tsai Suey-Ling 蔡穗玲. “Foding zunsheng tuoluoni jing 《頂尊勝陀羅尼經》. The Sutra of the Glorious Buddha Crown Dhāraṇī.” In Zhongguo fojiao shijing: Sichuan Sheng di san juan 中國佛教石經•四川省第三卷. Buddhist Stone Sutras in China: Sichuan Province Volume 3, ed. by Lothar Ledderose and Sun Hua 孫華 (Wiesbaden and Hangzhou: Harrassowitz Verlag and 中國美術學院出版社 China Academy of Art Press: 2016), pp. 107-122.
• with Claudia Wenzel. “Fo shuo liu men tuoluoni jing 《佛說六門陀羅尼經》. The Dhāraṇī Sutra of the Six Gates Spoken by the Buddha.” In Zhongguo fojiao shijing: Sichuan Sheng di er juan 中國佛教石經•四川省第二卷. Buddhist Stone Sutras in China: Sichuan Province Volume 2, ed. by Tsai Suey-Ling 蔡穗玲 and Sun Hua 孫華 (Wiesbaden and Hangzhou: Harrassowitz Verlag and 中國美術學院出版社 China Academy of Art Press: 2014), pp. 35-41.
• “Ausdruck und Widerspiegelung von Weltverhältnissen in der bildenden Kunst: Grundriss einer philosophischen Ästhetik am Leitfaden von Hans Heinz Holz und ihre praktische Anwendung auf den Konstruktivismus und die vormoderne Kunst Chinas.” M.A. thesis, (Universität Heidelberg: 2011)
• “Statue of a Monk.” In The Heart of Enlightenment: Buddhist Art in China 550-600, ed. by Museum of East Asian Art Cologne and the Research Project Buddhist Stone Inscriptions in China of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Köln: Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst: 2009), pp. 108-109.
• “Eine buddhistische Votiv-Stele und ihr religiöser Kontext.”Tribus 58 (2009), pp. 111-116.