Insa Thiele-Eich

Dr. Insa Thiele-Eich is a meteorologist and climate researcher working as the coordinator for the newly-founded University Partnership for Atmospheric Sciences (UPAS) at the University Bonn. (photo: Copyright Aschoffotografie)

Throughout her career, she conducted research for improved weather and climate forecasts as well as studying the connection between climate change and human health. For her doctoral thesis, she traveled to Bangladesh to analyze the effects of climate change on a country which is a hot-bed for natural disasters, only to realize that while Bangladesh is far away, the challenges we face in the coming years are of a global nature.

In 2017, she was selected in a year-long intense selection process from over 400 women by the commercial space flight initiative “Die Astronautin”, and since then has experienced extraordinary training to prepare for a ten-day scientific mission onboard the international space station ISS. In addition to attending theoretical lectures in aerospace technology, underwater simulations, obtaining a private pilot’s license, rocket launch simulations in the human centrifuge, weightlessness on parabolic flights, and isolation training during a cave mission.

This experience has also led to an increased exposure as a public speaker and science communicator.  Aside from moderating and speaking as an expert in various TV formats, she also writes a biweekly column on everything climate and space related, and hosts a successful TikTok channel, where she publishes exciting content from the cosmos of astronaut training.