I am an Adjunct Professor and Research Group Leader at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich. I have a multidisciplinary background in environmental, economic and social history, as well as in evolutionary medicine, (historical) epidemiology, (historical) anthropometry and (historical) demography. My research focuses on population health over time, particularly the interactions between human health and environmental change in Switzerland and beyond over the past two centuries. The latest trends and monitoring of important health issues are also part of my work. By combining historical and epidemiological approaches, my research group provides critical context to contemporary health and societal challenges.
Research group, projects & news
See my group's separate webpage
Other Affiliations and Memberships
- EU COST Action "The Great Leap. Multidisciplinary approaches to health inequalities, 1800-2022" (Working Group Leader)
- IUSSP Panel "Epidemics & Contagious Diseases: The Legacy of the Past" (Panel Member)
- Crisis Competence Center, UZH (Member)
- Initiative Geisteswissenschaften, UZH (Member)
- Epidemiology & Biostatistics PhD Program UZH (Member)
- Center for Military & Disaster Medicine, Swiss Armed Forces (Member of the Scientific Board)
- Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP) (Member)
- Institute of History, University of Bern (Research Affiliate & Lecturer)
- Digital Society Initiative (DSI), University of Zurich (Member)
- Swiss School of Public Health SSPH+ (Faculty Member)
Publications
See also Google Scholar Profile
ZORA Publication List
Publications
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2021
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Journal Article
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Public health interventions, epidemic growth, and regional variation of the 1918 influenza pandemic outbreak in a Swiss canton and its greater regions Annals of Internal Medicine, 174, 533–539. https://doi.org/10.7326/m20-6231
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National guidelines on nutrient reference values for the healthy adult population and for pregnant or lactating women are based on heterogeneous sources of evidence: review of guidelines Nutrition Reviews, 79, 462–478. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuaa062
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Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight ELife, 10, e60060. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.60060
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Ultraprocessed Food Consumption is Strongly and Dose‐Dependently Associated with Excess Body Weight in Swiss Women Obesity, 29, 601–609. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23091
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COVID-19 sequelae in adults aged less than 50 years: A systematic review Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 40, 101995. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2021.101995
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Verkaufen, kaufen und konsumieren – Eine Synthesestudie zu den Ernährungsunterschieden in den verschiedenen Gross- und Sprachregionen der Schweiz Schweizer Ernährungsbulletin, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.24444/blv-2021-0111
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Book Section
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Anthropometrie – wie genetische und umweltbedingte Faktoren im Zusammenspiel die Körperhöhe (und -form) früherer und heutiger Gesellschaften beeinflussen In H. Müller & H.-B. Hadorn (Eds.), Humangenetik und Anthropologie heute : Ein Zeitdokument (pp. 147–162). Schwabe. https://schwabe.ch/Humangenetik-und-Anthropologie-heute-978-3-7965-4350-0#bibliographical-data
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Working Paper
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Investigating survivorship bias: the case of the 1918 flu pandemic (No. 316; Working Paper Series / Department of Economics).
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2020
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Journal Article
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Fish consumption is associated with school performance in children in a non-linear way: results from the German cohort study KiGGS Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 2020, 2–11. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoz038
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Clash of the pandemics – At least 150’000 adults in Switzerland suffer from obesity grades 2 or 3 and are thus at elevated risk for severe COVID-19 [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review] F1000Research, 9, 1413. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.27819.1
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Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants The Lancet, 396, 1511–1524. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31859-6
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Impact of World War 1 on placenta weight, birth weight and other anthropometric parameters of neonatal health Placenta, 100, 150–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2020.07.003
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Prediction of muscle mass in arms and legs based on 3D laser-based photonic body scans’ standard dimensions in a homogenous sample of young men Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging & Visualization, 8, 562–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681163.2020.1733096
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Filling the weight gap: Estimating body weight and BMI using height, chest and upper arm circumference of Swiss conscripts in the first half of the 20th century Economics and Human Biology, 38, 100891. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2020.100891
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Residential altitude associates with endurance but not muscle power in young Swiss men Frontiers in Physiology, 11, 860. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00860
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Multiple measures derived from 3D photonic body scans improve predictions of fat and muscle mass in young Swiss men PLoS ONE, 15, e0234552. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234552
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Children’s dietary assessment and promotion: The Swiss situation International Journal of Public Health, 65, 507–509. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01393-4
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Hemoglobin concentration of young men at residential altitudes between 200 and 2000m mirrors Switzerland’s topography. Blood, 135, 1066–1069. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood.2019004135
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The “Pandemic Gap” in Switzerland across the 20th century and the necessity of increased science communication of past pandemic experiences Swiss Medical Weekly, e1. https://smw.ch/op-eds/post/the-pandemic-gap
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