December 09, 2021 | News | Welcome to the MPIDR

Jasmin Abdel Ghany Is a New PhD Student at the Fertility and Well-Being Lab

© With courtesy of Jasmin Abdel Ghany

Coming from the University of Edinburgh, where she obtained her Master in Social Research, Jasmin Abdel Ghany is a new PhD-Student at the Fertility and Well-being Laboratory. She wants to find out how climate change impacts fertility, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In her free time she likes to travel, from Rostock she will probably visit friends in Scandinavia more often.

What question drives you most in your research?

The question that drives me most is how climate change impacts fertility, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, which bear the largest burden of the adverse effects of global warming. I am keen to investigate how extreme temperatures and other climatic irregularities affect the number and sex ratio of children born and how this affects different subgroups of the population. Human populations are part of nature in the most fundamental ways, some of which we are only exploring now – and that is fascinating to me.

What are you particularly looking forward to as you start working at MPIDR?

I am very excited to work closely with researchers and peers from all around the globe! This also goes for our cohort of PhD-students who make for a multidisciplinary perspective when discussing pressing questions of demographic research. Additionally, the institute and its network offer an inspiring environment that encourages me to explore traditional and non-traditional data sources, so I look forward to incorporating different methodological approaches into my own research.

What do you like most about Rostock?

I am thrilled that the city is so close to the sea and I cannot wait to go to the beach in Warnemünde in the summer. I am also looking forward to visiting my friends in Scandinavia from here, it is only a few hours to Copenhagen.

What are you obsessed with at the moment besides demography?

I must say seafood and yoga! And while it feels nice to be in Germany after having spent much time abroad during my studies, nothing has changed – I am still obsessed with travelling. I visited 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe in the past few years, so now, apparently, I cannot stop wondering what my next destination will be.