November 05, 2021 | News | Welcome to the MPIDR

Liliana Patricia Calderón Bernal is a new PhD-Student at the Laboratory of Digital and Computational Demography

© MPIDR

Coming from the University of Strasbourg, Liliana Patricia Calderón Bernal is a new PhD-Student in the Laboratory of Digital and Computational Demography. She is exploring online genealogies for demographic research. In her free time she practices Reiki and meditation.

What question drives you most in your research?

When I decided to work with online genealogies for my PhD, I realized these databases are a gold mine to be explored for demographic research, but that first one needs to identify and address their biases and limits. Thus, I currently want to understand the data generating process and quality problems, and how they changed over generations, time and space. This will be essential to unlock their potential to carry out further research based on solid demographic analysis.

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

I have long been attracted by the interdisciplinary research environment and strength in quantitative and computational methods of the MPIDR, from whom I hope to widely learn over the next three years. I am looking forward to enhancing my analytical, methodological and technical skills as well as building a collaborative academic network with the other PhD students and research scientist of the institute.

What do you like most about Rostock?

Since I arrived in Rostock, I’ve appreciated its cleanliness and peacefulness. Although I grew up in the populated capital city of Bogota, Colombia I now enjoy the lifestyle of the small but well-organized European cities, such as Rostock. I also love the view from the office and the Institute: it will be inspiring for doing research.

What are you obsessed with at the moment besides demography?

Over the last years, I have been interested in discovering and learning about traditional, complementary and alternative medicines and therapies for mind-body balance, specially practicing Reiki and meditation. To relax, I also love cooking, dancing and going to the gym.