Ansgar Kahmen is an associate professor at the University of Basel and group leader of the Physiological Plant Ecology unit since 2013. The overall motivation of his research is to investigate the ecophysiological processes in plants that determine the fluxes of water, nitrogen and carbon in ecosystem. With his research, Prof. Kahmen seeks to understand how plants function in the context of a changing environment.While ecophysiological processes in plants are at the heart of his interest, his investigations have a strong link to research in agriculture, biogeochemistry and earth-system sciences. Key tools for his research are stable isotopes that his groups uses to characterize ecophysiological processes and as recorders of changes in the environment. To date, his work has resulted in 57 peer-reviewed publications in multidisciplinary and leading ecological and plant sciences journals.

He was awarded the the Strassburger Prize of the German Botanical Society for outstanding research in 2007 and the highly-regarded Dr.-Karleugen-Habfast Award of the German Stable Isotope Association for outstanding research using stable isotopes in 2012.