Melanie Malzahn

Melanie Malzahn is a Full Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, since 2012. She has held significant administrative roles, including Dean of the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies (2016–2022) and Director of the Academy Project “Turfan Research” (2017–2022) at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

• Education: Studied at the Universities of Hamburg and Vienna (1994–2001); Habilitation on the Tocharian Verbal System (2009); Dissertation on sandhi phenomena in the Rigveda (2001).

Research Interests span Comparative Indo-European Studies, Vedic Sanskrit, Tocharian, Middle Iranian, and the history and methods of comparative philology. Her work focuses on phonology, morphology, and semantics within Indo-European linguistics, alongside Tocharian and Vedic philology.

Scientific Awards include the START Prize (2010), APART Fellowship (2008), and memberships in prestigious academies such as the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Supervision: Since 2012, she has supervised numerous MA and PhD students, including Stefan Höfler, Veronika Milanova, and Patrick Elmer. Her supervised research includes topics on Indo-European kinship terms, Tocharian B compounds, and Vedic aspect semantics.