Kristin Richter was born in 1981 in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. She studied physics at the University of Potsdam and after spending a year on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, she moved to Norway where she undertook post-doctoral studies at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Bergen. Since 2013 she has been working as a senior researcher at the ice and climate unit in the Institute of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. There her research interests include glaciers and how they impact sea level variability. Richter lives in Innsbruck.