Dr. Thieme has a doctoral degree from the University of Tübingen, Germany (1999). She is currently the head and Professor at the Institute of Medical Psychology at the Philipps-University Marburg, Germany. Previously, she was Associate Professor at the Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Heidelberg and as a guest professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Thieme has published widely in areas of chronic pain in and across several disciplines medical disciplines, including rheumatology, neuroscience, anesthesiology, orthopedics, and dentistry. Her research interests have focused on psychophysiology and neuroscience as well as assessment and treatment of chronic pain patients with rheumatological disorders. Most recently she developed a novel neuromodulation technique for pain inhibition that has been patented (US9604054B2) and honored with the German Pain Prize for this work. Her aim is to expand the use of this intervention to groups of chronic pain patients.