Martin Thunert is senior research lecturer in political science at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) at Heidelberg University in Germany. His teaching and research focuses on North America as well as on lobbying and policy advice, transatlantic relations and US foreign policy. Thunert studied in Germany, the UK and Canada, has held academic positions in Germany and the US where he was at the University of Michigan. He also worked as a staff assistant for the late US Senator Edward M. Kennedy.