More risk expertise for health sciences

Potsdam, 6 November 2020

Prof. Oliver Günther (president, University of Potsdam) awarded an honorary professorship at the Brandenburg Faculty of Health Sciences (FGW) to Prof. Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer, director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy, as proposed by the faculty board. Founding dean Professor Joachim W. Dudenhausen presented the certificate of appointment. Gerd Gigerenzer is going to actively contribute to teaching and research and thus to more risk expertise and decision-making competences in health sciences.

MHB president Prof. Edmund Neugebauer welcomed Prof. Gerd Gigerenzer as a scientist of great renown who will instruct students in the MHB Master course of health services research and introduce the field of risk research and communication in the respective MHB curricula.

Gerd Gigerenzer is known to a wider public from research activities and publications which have opened new paths to competent decision-making specifically in everyday situations. The Harding Center designed infographics, decision trees and so called service boxes frequently published by health insurers and national media to support health-related decisions.

Risk competences in times of Corona

The importance of risk literacy is currently evident in times of the Corona pandemic, and regularly commented by Gerd Gigerenzer. His contributions address, for example, the risk competences of physicians and their possibilities to improve health care while saving resources. Prof. Gigerenzer and his team are going to bring their expertise to new courses currently being established at the faculty. Two of these are scheduled to cover public health and outcomes research. Regular FGW colloquia are a further format where Prof. Gigerenzer will report findings about risk competences of the general population in times of Corona.

Gerd Gigerenzer is a former director of the center for “Adaptive Behavior and Cognition” (ABC) at the Berlin Max Planck Institute for Human Development. He is a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, and he holds honorary memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. The Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute listed him among the 100 most influential thinkers worldwide.

Background information: Faculty of Health Sciences

The Brandenburg Faculty of Health Sciences was established in 2018 as a joint department by the University of Potsdam, the Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane and the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg and forms the core institution of the Brandenburg Health Campus. The aim is to develop new formats of medical, nursing and technical health care and innovative degree programmes. In collaboration with further universities and research facilities, the new department is intended to improve medical care in the state of Brandenburg.

Contact
Felix G. Rebitschek, manager and research director
Harding Center for Risk Literacy
Phone: 0331-97998399
E-Mail: rebitschek@uni-potsdam.de

Media contact
University of Potsdam
Office for Press and Public Information
Am Neuen Palais 10
D-14469 Potsdam
Phone: 0331 977-1474
E-Mail: presse@uni-potsdam.de
Internet: www.uni-potsdam.de/presse