December 15, 2025 | News
IMPRS-PHDS Annual Academy 2025
Held each December, the Annual Academy of the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science is a welcome highlight at the end of the year. When the weather outside turns cold or just mostly rainy, more than 100 IMPRS-PHDS doctoral students, alumni, faculty members, and friends gather in the cozy MPIDR auditorium.
Participants in the 7th Annual Academy 2025 of the Max Planck Research School for Population, Health, and Data Science at the MPIDR. © MPIDR/Schulz
The event provides a platform each year for the attendees to share their current research progress and discuss future projects. The seventh edition of the meeting included numerous formats, such as short talks by incoming students, networking meetings, poster presentations introduced by lightning talks, research updates in the form of oral paper presentations, faculty lectures, and an alumni panel.
This year, Chiara Micheletti, Andrea Colasurdo, and Laura Pasqua Leone were happy recipients of the Best Poster Award.
- Chiara Micheletti, “Healthy Outsurvival Probabilities”
- Andrea Colasurdo, “Beyond the Parent-Child Dyad: Linking Family Migration Histories and Lifetime Internal Migration in 19th-Century Netherlands”
- Laura Pasqua Leone, “Family Culture: Mapping Attitudinal Concordance Across Europe”
Andrea Colasurdo, Chiara Micheletti and Laura Pasqua Leone won the Best Poster Awards at the 2025 IMPRS-PHDS Annual Academy at the MPIDR. © MPIDR/Schulz
A special highlight of this year's Annual Academy was the surprise session on Wednesday, during which participants took part in an intuitive singing and team-building event. Together with Carlos Tielesch, a professional voice coach and trainer, the group created their very own IMPRS-PHDS song.
Six of the 2025 graduates were honored and received their certificates and the infamous IMPRS-PHDS rubber duck: Esther Denecke, Philipp Dierker, Riku Laine, Antonino Polizzi, Elena Rakusa, and Rishabh Tyagi.
The IMPRS-PHDS 8th Annual Academy will take place from December 9 to 11, 2026.
Six of the 2025 graduates of the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science: Riku Laine, Antonino Polizzi, Elena Rakusa, Esther Denecke, Rishab Tyagi, and Philipp Dierker. © MPIDR/Schulz
© MPIDR/Schulz