New Research Director • 06.07.2018Sebastian Klüsener to head the Research Area of Demographic Change and Ageing as of August 2018

His research primarily addresses the causes of long-term demographic change processes such as ageing, mortality and fertility rates, with a focus on the role of spatial centrality in these processes. After graduating in geography and completing minors in economics and public law at Heidelberg University, Sebastian Klüsener obtained his doctorate in geography at the University of Freiburg. There he dealt with the life strategies of school leavers in rural Ukraine. He was involved in numerous international research projects at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. Among others, the projects included comparative studies on the influence of politics on family formation and on the causes of differences in the longevity revolution between countries and among single populations.

“In the coming years, the Research Area of Demographic Change and Ageing will continue to place a special focus on the ageing of the baby-boomers born in the 1950s and 1960s,” says Sebastian Klüsener. “In order to manage the transition from the baby-boomer generation to the birth cohorts after 1970 with lower fertility rates, without endangering Germany's future viability, we must succeed in integrating the baby boomers in labour market and society as long as possible.”

Since the cohorts with high fertility rates will be heading for retirement within the next few years, the Federal Republic of Germany has a task of the century. During this process, the BiB will support politics, society and business with expert knowledge, also drawing on its own data surveys, such as the TOP study, which deals with the potential of older people for remaining active in labour market, society and family.