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

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

In January 2013, he joined the Heidelberg Center for Asian and Transcultural Studies as a graduate student in the project Standards of Validity, conducting research on modes of argumentation in dialogical texts from Late Imperial China for four years. Here he also worked for one year as a substitute assistant professor in the Intellectual History department under Prof. Joachim Kurtz.

• “A History of Research on the Sutra Stones of Shiyu. The Historiography of Sutra Stone Valley.” In*Chinese Buddhist Stone Sutras: Shandong Province, Volume 4*. Buddhist Stone Sutras in China: Shandong Province Volume 4, ed. by Wang Yongbo and Lothar Ledderose, with the assistance of Robert E. Harrist Jr. (Wiesbaden and Hangzhou: Harrassowitz Verlag and China Academy of Art Press: 2022), pp. 42–87.
• “The Unity of the Senses: Helmuth Plessner in Conversation with Hans Heinz Holz.”Aufhebung17 (2022), pp. 88–103.
• Edited by 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.
• “Mount Culai: Research History.” In*Chinese Buddhist Stone Sutras: Shandong Province, Volume 3*. 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 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, etc.: 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》. TheSutra of the Glorious Buddha Crown Dhāraṇī.” InZhongguo 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》. TheDhāraṇī Sutra of the Six Gates Spoken by the Buddha.” InChinese Buddhist Stone Sutras: Sichuan Province, Volume 2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.
• “The Expression and Reflection of World Relations in the Visual Arts: An Outline of a Philosophical Aesthetics Based on the Work of Hans Heinz Holz and Its Practical Application to Constructivism and Pre-Modern Chinese Art.” M.A. thesis, (University of Heidelberg: 2011)
• “Statue of a Monk.” In*The Heart of Enlightenment: Buddhist Art in China 550–600*, ed. by the Museum of East Asian Art Cologne and the Research Project “Buddhist Stone Inscriptions in China” of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Cologne: Museum of East Asian Art: 2009), pp. 108–109.
• “A Buddhist Votive Stele and Its Religious Context.”*Tribus* 58(2009), pp. 111–116.