Between 1992 and 1999, Malzahn studied
linguistics and
Ancient Near East studies in Hamburg and Vienna, receiving her
magister degree from the
University of Vienna in 1999 and her doctorate from the same institution in 2001; the topic of her dissertation was
sandhi in the
Rigveda. Between 2000 and 2012 she held various positions at the University of Vienna, as well as spending time as a guest researcher at the
Institut de France,
UCLA, and
Harvard University. In 2009 she received her
habilitation in Indo-European linguistics for a book on the Tocharian verbal system. In 2012 she was appointed to the professorship of comparative Indo-European linguistics at the University of Vienna. ==Honours and awards==