About me

I am a Scientific Director of the department Computational Social Science at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and Professor of Computational Social Science at the University of Mannheim. I use digital behavioral data like social media data or web browsing histories and computational methods to investigate interdisciplinary social science research questions. My substantive research focuses on the impact of digital media on societies and democratic processes. In my methodological work, I focus on the quality and scientific value of digital behavioral data for social science research.

Recent work has been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and the European Journal of Political Research. I am leading collaborative projects funded by the German Research Foundation DFG, the Leibniz Association and the Volkswagen Foundation.

Research interests

• Computational social science
• Digital societies
• Digital media and their effects
• Political communication and public opinion
• Comparative research