Prof. Dr. Kathrin Theissinger

Dr. Kathrin Theissinger took up the position of Professor of Global Change Biology at the Kassel Institute for Sustainability and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences on April 1. She completed her doctorate in Molecular Ecology at the University of Mainz. Until 2020, she held an assistant professorship at the University of Koblenz-Landau, where she set up her research team "Conservation Genetics". In 2020, she accepted a position at the LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics in Frankfurt. In 2022, she habilitated on the topic of "Conservation genetics of aquatic ecosystems under anthropogenic influence". In 2023, she acquired a DFG Heisenberg program, with which she was employed as a group leader at the JLU in Giessen in 2024 and at the RPTU in Kaiserslautern in 2025. In her research, she investigates biodiversity at many levels - from molecules to individual species to entire species communities - to understand how freshwater ecosystems function under human impact, such as climate change, habitat loss, pollution or biological invasions. It conducts both experimental, basic molecular research and socio-ecological, action-oriented conservation research with the aim of reconnecting humans and nature in order to contribute to the necessary socio-ecological transformation of our society.