Timm C. Harder graduated in 1989 as a veterinarian from Hannover Veterinary School, Germany. He completed his German PhD studies on morbilli- and herpesviruses of marine mammals in Hannover in 1990.
Work on the same subjects at the Department of Virology, Medical Faculty, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, for a Dutch PhD was successfully accomplished in 1996. He then took up a research position on molecular infectiological diagnostics at the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Virology, Christian-Albrechts University Clinics, Kiel, Germany, from where he received a German habilitation degree and, in 2010, an associate professorship.
Since 2005 he is head of the German National Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute (FLI, Federal Institute for Animal Health), Isle of Riems, Germany. The laboratory is an active member of international networks of the OIE and the FAO of the UN for research and diagnosis on animal influenza.
Research activities of Prof. Harder's laboratory comprise the development of improved diagnostic tools, molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis of influenza virus infections of animals with an emphasis on avian and porcine hosts.
