December 18, 2024 | News | Season´s Greetings 2024

Looking Forward to New and Exciting Opportunities in 2025

In 2024, we saw many accomplishments, scientific gatherings, and reasons to celebrate at the Institute. One of our biggest achievement is the permanence of our International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS). At the recent Annual Academy, we hosted 110 participants at the MPIDR and were able to celebrate together. We are looking forward into a future with many more young researchers from all over the world who will be trained as demographers in Rostock. In 2024, 13 participants in the IMPRS-PHDS program successfully defended their doctoral theses.

The online journal Demographic Research celebrated its 25th anniversary. Since its foundation in 1999, 51 volumes and special collections with 1821 scientific articles have been published. The online celebration on July 1 began with introductions by Publisher Emilio Zagheni and Editor-in-Chief Jakub Bijak, followed by reflections from past editors and concluded with elaborations on her vision for the journal’s future by the incoming Editor-in-Chief Anna Matysiak.

In October, the MPIDR hosted two symposia on migration. One focused on the future of migration research and discussed data availability and methods. The other brought together researchers from different disciplines and countries working on scholarly migration and mobility.

Scientific gatherings were also held at the MPIDR in November. The Institute organized a workshop to clarify the goals, techniques, and applications of machine learning methods for population research. The Annual MaxHel Center Meeting also took place. The MPIDR welcomed several guests from the University of Helsinki and all participants enjoyed interesting talks and a joint social program.

Another anniversary was celebrated in November. The policy newsletter “Demografische Forschung Aus Erster Hand” turned 20. The editors invited more than 150 guests to lectures and a panel discussion with high-ranking politicians and scientists such as the President of the Max Planck Society Patrick Cramer and MV Minister for Science, Culture, Federal and European Affairs Bettina Martin. A highlight during this event was the panel discussion on the topic “Do we lack people in Europe?”.

Now that 2024 draws to a close, we are looking back at a year full of events, celebrations and changes, and ahead towards 2025 and what exciting things it might bring. The upcoming festive season is an opportunity to reflect, rest and revive our spirits for the new year.

In this spirit, we wish all our staff, our alumni, and everyone connected to our Institute, happy holidays and a healthy start to the new year.

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