Mirjam Jenny is New Head Research Scientist of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy

As of January 2016, Mirjam Jenny is the new Head Research Scientist of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, succeeding Odette Wegwarth.

Mirjam Jenny completed her PhD in psychology at the University of Basel in 2013. From January 2013 to March 2015 she worked as a scientific researcher for the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, followed by a position as data analyst for the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztlichen Bundesvereinigung). At the beginning of this year, Mirjam Jenny moved to the Harding Center for Risk Literacy, a privately funded research center that is maintained by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

Mirjam Jenny's research interests include the study of decision-making processes and the development of decision aids in the medical field. For one she developed a quick four-question test to identify depression. This test provides family physicians, who are often the first contact for people with psychological illnesses, with a simple decision aid for diagnosing depression. For her dissertation on the cognitive foundations of decision-making processes she was awarded the Emilie Louise Frey Prize in 2013 and the Otto Hahn Medal in 2014.

At the Harding Center for Risk Literacy, Mirjam Jenny takes over the position of Head Research Scientist from Odette Wegwarth, who became chair of the Board of Stiftung Gesundheitswissen in the summer of 2015. A main goal of the Harding Center is to foster risk literacy in various domains, including medicine. One of its activities has been to develop fact boxes that help patients and physicians assess the benefits and harms of treatments such as mammography screening or specific vaccinations.