Biography

Rasmus Hoffmann got his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Rostock (Germany), his M.A. in Sociology, Biology and French from the University of Freiburg (Germany) and a licence in Sociology from the University René Descartes in Paris (France).
After my education as a sociologist with interest in ecological problems, sustainability and social inequality, I continued in 2001 as a Ph.D.-Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock. There I got a formation in demography and statistics and concentrated for my dissertation on socioeconomic differences in health and mortality, especially among the elderly in Denmark and the USA, under the supervision of Prof. James Vaupel. Since 2004, I am research scientist at Rostock University with Prof. Gabriele Doblhammer. There I spent a lot of time in teaching and empirical data analysis.
My other research interests are risk factors for disability, aging, longevity, demographic change, East European health crisis, public health, patient rights and compliance. The topic of socioeconomic health differences is still my main interest because (1) it opens interesting questions to basic theoretical and empirical research, e.g. the interplay between social and biological factors, (2) determinants of health are not only of academic interest but are relevant for almost everyone, (3) the topic is highly ranked on the political agenda. Reducing social differences in health is among the first goals of public health policy on the national, European and global level (WHO).