Michael Bechtel joined the the University of Cologne in 2022 where he holds the chair for Political Economy within the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute. The cluster is a joint initiative of the Universities of Bonn and Cologne analysing Markets and Public Policy.

Michael Bechtel graduated from University of Freiburg, earned his doctorate at University of Konstanz and completed his habilitation in Political Science at ETH Zurich. Since then he has held different research positions in Switzerland and the United Staes, including a tenured professorship at Washington University, before he accepted a call to the University of Cologne. 

Michael Bechtel's research foci are Comparative Politics, International Relations, Climate Politics, Redistribution, Voting, Political Behaviour, Survey Methods, Experiments - and our students love the fact that he's asking the fundamental question, why politics as we know it is paying so little attention to the long-term preparedness for catastrophic events.