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Explore a series of short interviews with the key figures shaping the Zurich Population Research Conference, scheduled for January 20–21, 2025.
Members of the Conference Committee and the Executive Board of the Population Research Center (UZH PRC) share their perspectives on the conference’s vision, the critical topics in population research, and what makes this event unmissable.
What makes the Zurich Population Research Conference a must-attend event?
This is the first-ever conference of its kind in Zurich, bringing together researchers from diverse disciplines - medicine, social sciences, and more - to explore population studies. Such interdisciplinary collaboration is rare, making this event an exciting and unique opportunity.
As Director of the PRC and a political scientist, what are you most excited about the conference?
I’m especially excited about the panels on migration, vulnerable groups, and innovative methods. As someone researching migration, I can’t wait to see how experts from psychology and medicine approach these topics.
Why is collaboration across disciplines important in population research?
As a political scientist and director of the PRC, I see how interdisciplinary research can bridge the gap between theory and practice. Take migration research, for example, political scientists might focus on governance, psychologists on trauma and resilience, and medical researchers on health challenges. By combining these perspectives, we gain insights that wouldn’t be possible in isolation. Working together allows us to address the full range of population challenges, from individual well-being to global policy solutions.
What makes the Zurich Population Research Conference a must-attend event?
Two things make this conference a must-attend: first, it brings together an incredibly interdisciplinary group of of scholars, all working on closely related questions; second, looking at he program there is so much innovative and cutting-edge work to be inspired by.
As a member of the Executive Board of the PRC, and professor in Political Science, what are you most excited about the conference?
As a member of the PRC Executive Board the conference is a major milestone. The center is entering its third year and it is great to see the PRC thriving and our network of people interested in population research growing. The conference is our first opportunity to really showcase the PRC and its mission beyond UZH and we are very happy to welcome a diverse group of participants from academia, industry and different federal and cantonal offices.
Why is collaboration across disciplines important in population research?
For me, population research is at its core an interdisciplinary endeavor. Appropriate methodologies enable research on highly relevant issues across a wide range of disciplines. But it is also these questions that are, in turn, driving exciting methodological innovations. Adopting approaches and best practices across disciplinary boundaries, population research is tackling highly relevant societal issues that pertain to all areas of life, from mental health, to migration and mobility, environmental impacts or population disparities.
What makes the Zurich Population Research Conference a must-attend event?
This conference is as interdisciplinary as few others with the common denominator of population-based studies. The diversity of scientists and topics will be very inspirational.
As director of the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), and as a member of the Executive Board of the PRC, what are you most excited about the conference?
For many things we do in research, there are several options to design, carry out and analyse population-based studies. I am very curious to see how other groups and in particular scientists from other disciplines approach cohort studies, surveys or approaches for nesting studies into existing studies or registries.
Why is collaboration across disciplines important in population research?
I am convinced that large population based studies would benefit from different perspectives and expertise and increase efficiency and meaning of these studies. With the school- and population-based Ciao Corona, for example, we did, I think, a great study during the Corona pandemic to elucidate virus spreading, development of immunity or Long Covid but we did not address learning outcomes or socio-econmomic determinants and outcomes. School based based are fantastic since they happen in the setting where children spend most of their time, but we could make them even more meaningful to learn about Youth Development by a more interdisciplinary approach.
What makes the Zurich Population Research Conference a must-attend event?
The PRC Conference is a unique opportunity to take a fresh look at your research through an interdisciplinary lens, gaining insight into new methods and ways of thinking.
As an epidemiologist and member of the Conference Committee, what are you most excited about the conference?
I look forward most to the methods sessions. I learn so much from seeing how different fields conceptualize and solve problems in different ways. It always sparks new ideas for collaborations and innovation.
Why is collaboration across disciplines important in population research?
I think that the more complex the problem is that we are trying to solve, the more it is a must that we collaborate across different disciplines. Since beginning my work with the PRC, I have formed collaborations with psychologists, political scientists, and sociologists, and my research has benefited immensely from it. For example, I was able to benefit from the work of psychologists to design a survey to better understand the health decision-making of travelers at our clinic.
What makes the Zurich Population Research Conference a must-attend event?
This is the very first conference of our new UZH Population Research Center, bringing together great energy from researchers across the medical and social sciences, and across universities, government agencies, and the private sector to learn about population-based research.
As a member of the Executive Board of the PRC, and Professor of Psychology at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, what are you most excited about the conference?
In a word, learning across disciplines. I am excited to see interdisciplinary exchange in action across sessions and conversations at our conference. We have lined up excellent keynote talks and sessions and, as a developmental scientist working on population-based studies like the Zurich Project on Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso), I especially look forward to the sessions on interdisciplinary and longitudinal and national-level data collections.
Why is collaboration across disciplines important in population research?
I realized early on in my career that we can only fully understand human development in collaboration with scholars from other disciplines. Taking the example of changing trends in youth mental health and substance use problems, we need epidemiology, psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, sociology, pediatrics, educational sciences, social work, exercise physiology, economics, and additional disciplines to truly understand and address these trends.
I find that putting together the ideas of different people with a variety of perspectives typically results in better, more innovative and sound research than when we rely on the ideas of one individual or one research group or discipline alone.
The UZH PRC was founded to facilitate and support such excellence in interdisciplinary population-based research.
