Ann-Kathrin obtained her Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, where she majored in Plant Sciences. During a semester abroad at Aarhus University (Denmark), she developed a particular interest in beneficial plant-microbe interactions. She then pursued a Master’s degree in Plant Sciences at Wageningen University & Research (the Netherlands). Her Master’s thesis, jointly supervised by René Geurts and Joost van Heerwaarden, investigated the nitrogen-fixation effectiveness of various African Bradyrhizobium strains in cowpea.
Interested in further exploring rhizobial microbiology, Ann-Kathrin moved to the University of Oxford (UK), where she joined Philip Poole’s group for her PhD. Her research focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying preferential carbon utilization and metabolic homeostasis in rhizobia, both during free-living growth and in symbiosis with pea and bean plants.
Ann-Kathrin joined our lab as a postdoctoral researcher in September 2026. As part of the ENSA project, she is working to engineer bacteria capable of establishing nitrogen-fixing symbioses with non-leguminous plants.