Katrin Hartmann qualified as a veterinarian from the College of Veterinary Medicine of the LMU (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet) Munich in Germany in 1987. She obtained her Dr. med. vet. in Small Animal Internal Medicine in 1990. From 1988 to 1996, she was Scientific Assistant and Clinical Instructor at the Clinic of Small Animal Medicine of the LMU Munich. She obtained her habilitation (German PhD) in Small Animal Internal Medicine in 1995, and from 1996 to 2001 worked as Assistant Professor (Privatdozentin) at the same clinic. She became Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine – Companion Animals in 1999 and holds the German title of Fachtieraerztin (specialised veterinarian) in both Internal Medicine and Clinical Pathology. From 2001 to 2003, she worked as Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the Small Animal Department at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia Athens in USA. In 2003, she returned to Munich where she still works today as a Full Professor and Chair of the Clinic of Small Animal Medicine at the LMU Munich. In 2009, she additionally was appointed the First Department Head of the newly founded Centre for Clinical Veterinary Medicine at the LMU Munich and since then acts as either Department Head or Vice Department Head in changing turns.

Her main research interests are in small animal clinical infectiology with a focus on feline virus infections (particularly feline infectious peritonitis and feline retrovirus infections), antiviral chemotherapy, leptospirosis, as well as vaccination and herd immunity.