Thilo Zimmermann is a political economist. He began his academic journey at the University of Cologne, where he earned a Diplom-Volkswirt degree in Economics in 2010. During his time in Cologne, he was active in the European Student Forum AEGEE. Between 2009 and 2011 Thilo Zimmermann worked in the Economic Department at the German Embassy in Rome from, gaining valuable international experience. He joined Harvard University as a Pre-Doctoral Fellow from 2013 to 2014. Thilo then pursued his PhD at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna  in Pisa, completing it in 2016. During his PhD studies, he spent a year at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Since 2018, Thilo has been back at the University of Cologne, focussing on academic networks of the university.