About Me

I'm a quantitative population geographer interested in the patterns and processes of human behaviour in space and time. My research focuses on quantifying, understanding and visualising migration and mobility. I grew up in Germany, did my PhD in Australia (2006-10), a post-doc in Vienna (2010-16), held a position as assistant professor at the Department of Demography at the University of Groningen (2016-17), and am currently Research Director for Migration & Mobility at Germany's Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB).

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Research

My research interests are: (1) past, present and future international migration flows, (2) spatial patterns and drivers of internal migration and mobility, (3) the drivers and consequences of international migration, and (4) the development of interactive data visualisations of migration flows.

I have authored more than 30 publications with more than 550 citations (as of July 2019), including a paper in Science. I have given several invited lectures and more than 30 presentations at international conferences.

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Data Visualisations

Together with a great team of coders, web designers and creative minds, I've created a series of data visualisations in recent years. Most widely known is The Global Flow of People, which was published in spring 2014. The main element of this dataviz is the so-called Circular Migration Plot, which may become the new 'standard' for visualising flow data.

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Media & Outreach

I get contacted frequently by the media and have thus far appeared twice on TV in Germany. My research has been featured in print media (including Scientific American, Wired, and FAZ) and in various online media (including the Washington Post, National Geographic, NPR, New Scientist and The Atlantic/Quartz). I enjoy communicating my research to a wider audience.

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Tools & Code

To follow soon

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My Blog

This is a more or less random collection of thoughts on population geography and beyond that I think are worth writing about.