Svenja Heesch

Svenja Heesch is a German botanist, algologist, biogeographer, curator and explorer, and is a specialist in the taxonomy of algae families.

Academic career
In 2005 Heesch completed her Ph.D. at the University of Otago, supervised by Akira Peters and Catriona Hurd. Prior to this she had completed a diploma at the Institute of Marine Science, Kiel University. Heesch undertook postdoctoral research at NIWA before returning to Europe, where she has worked at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, the Ryan Institute of the National University of Ireland, and the Roscoff Biological Station, Brittany. Now based at the University of Rostock, Heesch has received funding to research the taxonomy of Prasiolaceae from the Svalbard archipelago, and to integrate molecular and morphological approaches to clarify relationships within the family.

Awards and honours
In 2018 Wendy Nelson and Judy Sutherland named a species of filamentous algae Prasionema heeschiae. Nelson and Sutherland wrote that "The specific epithet honours Svenja Heesch, our colleague who has made significant contributions to the study of the Prasiolales". It is the first recorded species of the genus Prasionema in the southern hemisphere, and was collected from Campbell Island.