Volker was born in Hamburg, Germany. He studied biochemistry at the University of Hannover and obtained his diploma degree in 1992. He subsequently worked on cytochrome oxidase in the laboratory of Bernd Ludwig in Frankfurt and obtained his PhD in 1996. With a DFG grant he went for two years as a postdoctoral fellow to the group of Mårten Wikström at the University of Helsinki where he worked with Moshe Finel on respiratory complex I from bacteria. He returned to Frankfurt to the laboratory of Ulrich Brandt and started structural work on mitochondrial complex I. He completed his Habilitation (venia legendi in biochemistry) in 2010. In 2013 he joined the Institute of Biochemistry II at the Medical Faculty of Goethe University as an independent group leader and was appointed apl Professor in 2018. His laboratory works on structure and function of mitochondrial complex I and related proteins. Volker is section editor of BBA Bioenergetics.