Manfred Lindau studied Physics at the Technical University (TU) Berlin and at the University of Hamburg. In 1983 he earned his doctorate in Physical and Applied Chemistry at the TU Berlin. From 1984 to 1985, he was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen with Nobel Laureate Erwin Neher and, from 1985 to 1987, in the Physics Department of the Free University Berlin. There, he obtained a position equivalent to Assistant Professor, leading his own group  from 1998 to 1992. From 1992 to 1997. He was Senior Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg and lectured Biophysics at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg from 1994 to 1997. He joined the faculty at Cornell in 1997.  From 2013 to 2018, he also held a group leader position at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen as head of the research group Nanoscale Cell Biology funded by an ERC Advanced Grant. In 2021 he joined the faculty in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami.

Honors and Scientific Awards
Sir Bernard Katz Award (the Biophysical Society Exocytosis and Endocytosis Subgroup) 2018
Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society Teaching Award (Tau Beta Pi) 2010
President, Biophysical Society Exocytosis &Endocytosis Subgroup 2004
Appointed Member of Asian Institute of NanoBioScience and Technology 2003
Humboldt Research Award (Alexander v.Humboldt Foundation Germany) 2003