17.12.2025 LOEWE top professorship for Prof. Dr. Katja Fiehler
JLU can keep perception researcher in Giessen - key figure of the new excellence cluster “The Adaptive Mind (TAM)”
The renowned Giessen perception researcher Prof. Dr. Katja Fiehler has been awarded a LOEWE top professorship and will receive funding of almost 2.7 million euros from the state of Hesse over the next five years. The Professor of General Psychology with a focus on perception and action is a key figure in the new Cluster of Excellence “The Adaptive Mind (TAM)” under the leadership of Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU). The LOEWE grant has enabled JLU to keep Prof. Fiehler in Giessen and to fend off her call to a top university.
“The fact that Prof. Fiehler has chosen JLU and will continue to coordinate the TAM cluster together with her Giessen colleague Prof. Dr. Roland Fleming underlines the role of the University of Giessen as the most successful Hessian university in the excellence competition - with a total of three clusters of excellence,” emphasized JLU President Prof. Dr. Katharina Lorenz. “I am extremely grateful to the state of Hesse and in particular to our Minister of Science Timon Gremmels for the funding - and the appreciation for the excellent perception research at JLU associated with the LOEWE top professorship.”
Prof. Fiehler emphasized: “I am extremely pleased to receive the LOEWE funding, which will allow me to further advance my research program at JLU over the next few years and thus also strengthen the Cluster of Excellence ‘The Adaptive Mind’.”
With her work in the internationally visible JLU research profile area “Perception and Adaptive Behavior”, the researcher plays an important role in the strategic development not only of Giessen's cutting-edge research, but also of Hessen as a science location. The cross-location Cluster of Excellence “The Adaptive Mind”, in which the Philipps University of Marburg and the Technical University of Darmstadt are involved alongside JLU, impressively demonstrates how a joint approach by the various institutions can ensure excellent research for Hesse. The cluster will begin its work in January.
In addition to her academic work, Prof. Fiehler is actively involved in promoting young researchers at
and makes a key contribution to supporting researchers at an early stage of their careers. Just a few days ago, she succeeded in acquiring a new DFG Research Training Group. As a founding member and deputy director of the Giessen Graduate Center for Natural Sciences and Psychology (GGN), she also conveys an important role model for young female scientists.
Dr. Katja Fiehler studied psychology at the Technical University of Dresden. She completed her doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig in 2005 and habilitated at the Philipps University of Marburg in 2011 before coming to JLU in the same year with a Heisenberg professorship. Her research interests include the interplay between human perception and action.
This was already the third LOEWE professorship for perception research in Giessen - after two LOEWE start professorships for Prof. Dr. Martin Hebart and Prof. Dr. Katharina Dobs.
Further information
Overview of the LOEWE professorships of the State of Hesse
PM from November 27, 2025 on Prof. Fiehler's new Research Training Group
