Katharina earned her PhD in 2019 through a joint program between the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology at the University of Bremen. Since 2022, she has worked as a Senior Scientist in CeMESS’ Division of Microbial Ecology.
Katharina’s research focuses on linking the activity of single microbial cells to large-scale ecosystem processes. Her team uses a variety of methods, ranging from cultivating microbes and studying their physiology in a laboratory setting to measuring biogeochemical processes using stable isotope incubations in the field. The group’s central focus is applying single-cell and molecular techniques to link specific microorganisms in complex communities to their activities in situ.
In 2024, she was awarded an ERC Synergy Grant to investigate how microbial activity in oxygen-depleted ocean waters influences the global climate.
In the CoE, Katharina leads in WP 4.3, on ‘Control of Nitrous Oxide Emissions in Soils’. The central goal of this work package is to understand and predict global N2O emissions from agricultural soils. The results may help to minimize agricultural N2O emissions, ultimately leading to the development of targeted approaches to manipulate the soil microbiome.