July 21, 2021 | News | Welcome to the MPIDR

Jonas Schöley is a new Researcher at the Laboratory of Population Health

© courtesy of Jonas Schöley

Coming from the University of Southern Denmark, Jonas Schöley is a new Researcher at the Laboratory of Population Health. He wants to explore how a population relate to its individuals in statistics. He likes Rostock for its perfect size and having one of everything from a harbor to a zoo.

What question drives you most in your research?

How does a population relate to its individuals? The statistics that we measure on populations are aggregates over the experiences of countless groups and people. This aggregation, while providing a useful birds-eye view, can stand in stark contrast to individual experience. Exploring the relationship between the whole and its parts has informed some of my work, especially when it comes to infant mortality: Did you know that 98 percent of the infants currently born in the U.S. suffer a lower risk of death than the average U.S. infant?

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

Meeting people at the office. Like many others I've been working from home for more than a year due to COVID. While I'm prepared to return to this arrangement if needed, right now I enjoy having a commute that takes me out of the apartment.

What do you like most about Rostock?

Rostock is perfectly sized. It's a bit like a city build out of Lego, not massive, but you've got one of everything: football arena, theater, harbour, beach, industry, university, zoo, tram, even an airport... The bike quickly takes you anywhere. If you're remotely interested in technology or history, go visit the "Traditionsschiff". You'll learn about the massive structural changes that took place in Rostock after re-unification while being surrounded by relics of maritime industry.

What are you obsessed with at the moment besides demography?

I spent some evenings carving a replacement part for a guitar out of a piece of bone. Nothing weird about it, its just a good material for the purpose...