America expert appointed as Deputy Secretary General of the Humboldt Foundation

Katrin Amian joined the Foundation in 2007 and was appointed head of the North America, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania Division in 2008; she also became deputy head of the Sponsorship and Network Department in 2021. An experienced networker with excellent transatlantic connections, she will reinforce the Foundation’s management. Katrin Amian is looking forward to her new responsibilities:  

“In the course of the many years I have been working for the Foundation, I’ve met many Humboldtians and been inspired by their curiosity, energy and investigative spirit. Now I am really excited to be joining the management team at head office and working together with the Secretary General, Markus Zanner, and all my colleagues to lead the Foundation’s administrative activities into the future. Particularly in times of global crisis and momentous upheavals, international collaborative networks like the one fostered by the Humboldt Foundation are crucial. It will continue to be one of my core missions to strengthen and expand them.” 

Biography: 

Katrin Amian was born in Aachen in 1977. She studied North American Regional Science at the University of Bonn, completing a doctorate in American Studies there in 2007. Scholarships from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) took her to the University of Notre Dame and the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States. After finishing her doctorate, she initially worked for the Chair of North American Studies at the University of Bonn, transferring to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2007 as programme director for strategic planning in the Department for Strategic Planning and External Relations. In 2008, she became head of the Foundation’s North America, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania Division and from 2021, also deputy head of the Sponsorship and Network Department.