Faculty of Life Sciences

PD Dr. Siddig is interested in studying the trade-offs and synergies between the production and use of water, energy, and food in developing countries as influenced by climate, population, and policy, including distributional, economic, and regional impacts.

Geographically, his research focuses on Africa and the Middle East. Methodologically, he relies largely on economy-wide simulation models, with CGE models leading the way (including ind GAMS and Gempack). In addition, Dr. Siddig works on capacity development in the area of database development and on policy simulation modeling in a development context.

Professor Hillman's research focuses on the influence of husbandry conditions and management practices on the welfare of farm animals. Her research in the area of animal welfare ranges from the validation of animal welfare indicators, including animal health, to the practical implementation of animal welfare measures.

Hillmann and her team concentrate on animal behavior. In addition, they use information on animal health, such as (stress)-physiological variables and economically relevant characteristics (e.g., meat quality).

Ethical and legal considerations also play a role in her research. However, practical problems in animal husbandry are in the foreground.  Besides classical behavioral observations, often with the help of video recordings, stress-physiological, clinical and cognitive parameters are added, but also techniques for automated recording of animal behavior.
Many problems in animal husbandry are related to a disturbance in behavioral control. Professor Hillmann's basic research in behavioral control thus also leads to solutions of practically relevant behavioral problems in farm, pet, laboratory, and zoo animals. Such solutions work at the roots of the problems because they are based on causal understanding of the underlying control mechanism.
In both application and basic questions, the measurement and consideration of the animals emotion plays a critical role as a component in the control of behavior, as well as in relation to their welfare.

Her research thus moves in the area of tension between scientific/clinical basic research, application and questions from the fields of agricultural economics and social sciences.

Prof. Ziegler's expertise and that of his team lies in the field of psychological diagnostics and deals with all topics of personnel diagnostics in the HR life cycle. They focus on personality, intelligence and situational awareness. Ziegler and his team develop solutions to measure these in relation to requirements and to use them for performance or learning prediction. Therefore they use the full range of qualitative (e.g. interviews) and quantitative methods (e.g. tests, questionnaires, machine learning).
Prof. Ziegler has already carried out several successful projects with well-known companies in this area, involving the creation of competency models, employee surveys, annual appraisals or job aptitude diagnostics.  Prof. Ziegler's working group also trains individuals or teams on topics of personnel diagnostics (e.g. assessment centers or interviews). In addition, Prof. Ziegler develops customized diagnostic processes or evaluates them.

The research-based didactics of biology – the science of teaching and learning of biological contents and methods – is essential for the education and training of biology teacher students. One focus area of Prof. Upmeier zu Belzen’s work is the modelling and measuring of competencies in scientific methods for acquiring and consolidating knowledge of pupils, students and teachers. Her team applies qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical social research. Prof. Upmeier zu Belzen conducts experimental intervention studies to test the effectiveness of support frameworks regarding diagnostic capabilities and the ability to convey knowledge of (prospective) teachers as well as the effectiveness of different educational activities offered to pupils. The transfer of the results into academic practice is supported by relevant publications as well as by trainings for teachers and school administrations.

Prof. Hoppe’s research is focused on Occupational Health Psychology (OHP) especially on the analysis of work activities to maintain employee health and performance as well as to provide learning and development opportunities. OHP integrates occupational and health psychology with occupational medicine and traditional labor safety, which is insufficient for today’s flexible employment situation. Prof. Hoppe also examines the psychosocial characteristics of a specific workplace, e.g. work requirements or the level of influence on and control over tasks as well as the social working environment. She also studies the effects of these characteristics on employee health and his/her well-being. She investigates how psychosocial work characteristics influence an employee’s motivating factors like job satisfaction and commitment. Particular attention is paid to the situation of migrant and low-skilled workers and the analysis of the impact their workplaces and work environments may have on their health and well-being. Moreover, Prof. Hoppe studies multi-ethnic and -lingual workforces and the effects of diversity on employee health.

Professor Voelkle is an expert in Quantitative Psychology. He and his team work on the development and adaptation of new assessment procedures, the statistical and mathematical modeling of psychological processes, the design of studies as well as the analysis and interpretation of empirical-psychological data. Special emphasis of the research conducted at professor Voelkle’s lab lies on the analysis of longitudinal data and evaluation research. Professor Voelkle and his team are often involved as consultants in research and development projects in the education and health sector. To improve applied empirical research in the social and life sciences, they have founded the Berlin Methods Group in 2017.