Can we predict Steph Curry’s next move on the court? Last year, Boris Barron started at MPIDR as a research scientist in the Migration and Mobility Department. He is a physicist and specializes in modeling complex systems. While at Cornell University, he and his colleagues developed a methodology to analyze detailed positional information of basketball players in NBA games. Their approach adapted a physics-based approach, Density Functional Fluctuation Theory (DFFT), to provide a general framework to infer subtle aspects of the game. More
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Were you ever thinking it would be useful to create compelling maps and visuals to present your data and analysis results to a broader audience more effectively? Were you ever hoping to be able to extend your statistical analysis of demographic and epidemiological data through means of geospatial analytics? How much would you learn from studying spatial distributions and spatial patterns of mortality and how these relate to environmental conditions and population characteristics? More
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A recent study by researchers at the University of Padua and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) has revealed that political differences between partners can significantly increase the risk of separation. Using long-term data from UK couples, the researchers found that those with different party preferences were substantially more likely to separate than those with the same political beliefs. The risk is particularly high when there are differences of opinion on Brexit. More
Conte Keivabu, R.; Widmann, T.:
The effect of temperature on language complexity: evidence from seven million parliamentary speeches Iscience 27:6, 1–13. (2024)
Jasilionis, D.; van Raalte, A. A.; Klüsener, S.; Grigoriev, P.:
The underwhelming German life expectancy European Journal of Epidemiology, 1–12. (2023)
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Recap of the “Gender Inequalities, Fertility, and the Future of Family Demography: Intersectionality in an Era of Family Complexity” conference in Rostock: In March 2025, researchers from six continents gathered at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) for the “Gender Inequalities, Fertility, and the Future of Family Demography: Intersectionality in an Era of Family Complexity” conference in Rostock. The scholars came together to debate and advance the understanding of fertility, gender inequality, social stratification, and the growing complexity of family life. More