Katja Simons is the project director of the German Academic International Network (GAIN) at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in New York.

Her position includes finding and contacting German scientists and scholars in North America, organizing events, writing and distributing an electronic newsletter on current developments in higher education and research policy in Germany and Europe, and developing and managing a website. Prior to working for the DAAD, Katja was a research associate and adjunct professor in Urban and Regional Sociology at the Institute for Social Sciences at Humboldt-University in Berlin.

Simons received her Ph.D. at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, where she was part of a research training group at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on the Ruhr Area. Her dissertation on the governance dynamics of large scale urban development projects was published in 2003.

• Competing for the Best and Brightest: Germany Gets in the Game (July 20, 2004)