[2] Amtmann completed her graduate degrees in biology in the laboratory of Dietrich Gradmann at the University of Göttingen.
[2] Her doctoral research involved the use of electrophysiology to study unicellular marine algae, in an effort to understand how they maintain homeostasis for calcium and sodium ions.
In 1993, after earning her PhD, Amtmann investigated ion transport properties in barley in Dale Sanders' laboratory at the University of York.
Whilst at York she developed microarrays that could be used to monitor how ion transporters responded to nutrient deficiency and salinity.
[7] Amtmann is married to Pawel Herzyk, who she met during her first postdoctoral position at the University of York.