People | Science | Leadership

I'm an experienced population scientist, migration expert, passionate communicator, regular policy advisor, creative thinker and inspiring leader. I'm currently based in Potsdam, Germany, where I lead the department 22 "non-university research" at the ministry of science, research and culture of the state of Brandenburg.

I have an academic background in migration, population geography and demography. Being a creative thinker, I like to perceive the world in new ways, and to look beyond the obvious in solving problems and generating new ideas. In my previous academic positions, I combined scientific insight with my passion for data visualisation and communication to give evidence-based policy advice and to inform the general public about demographic change and migration. After 18 years in academia, I'm excited to switch sides to support the excellent research institutes in Brandenburg and provide a strategic vision for the future development of the State's science landscape.

I grew up in Germany, studied geography in Regensburg and Tuebingen, and completed my PhD in population geography/migration at the University of Queensland, Australia in 2010. I moved from Australia to Austria, where I worked as a research scientist on international migration and population projections at the Vienna Institute of Demography until 2016. My next stop was the Netherlands, where I held a position as Assistant Professor in Population Geography at the University of Groningen. In 2017, I moved to Germany to take on a position as Research Director at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). In October 2024, I took on the role as department head at the science ministry of the state of Brandenburg in Potsdam.