Professor Roessner has a PhD in Plant Biochemistry from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany. Prior to that, she gained a Diploma in Biochemistry at the University of Potsdam, and the John Innes Institute in Norwich, UK.

Professor Roessner, one of Australia's foremost plant scientists and a world leader in the field of metabolomics, comes to the ANU from the University of Melbourne, where she has been Head of the School of BioSciences since 2018.