Dr. Anna Sieben

Anna Sieben is head of the "Pedestrian Dynamics - Social Psychology" department at the Institute for Civil Safety Research. Her team is currently investigating how social norms and emotions change dynamically in crowds. For example, they are interested in why and in which situations people start jostling. With this, they are trying to understand how severe crowding can be prevented and how crowds can be made safer.

Tell us something about your background.

I studied at three universities: at the universities in Freiburg and Cologne and at Goldsmiths College in London. I first started studying psychology to become a psychotherapist later. But I soon realised that science itself fascinated me. I was initially interested in the interface between the individual psyche and society, so I also studied sociology. I also started working as a student assistant early on in my studies. This gave me an insight into the everyday life of scientists and I was enthusiastic about it. It wasn't until after my doctorate that I switched back to the STEM field. During my studies and doctorate, I was supported with scholarships from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. The contacts I made there greatly encouraged me to pursue a career in science. Today, at Forschungszentrum Jülich, I work together with physicists and mathematicians on crowds and pedestrian dynamics.

What do you value about your work at Forschungszentrum Jülich?

My favourite aspect is discussing problems with colleagues. I always find it fascinating how we can come up with new ideas and solutions together. In the future, I would like to continuously build up and lead a working group, but I would also like to be involved in university teaching. It is important for me to work with colleagues and at the same time have the freedom to discover and develop my own fields of research.

My experiences with the working environment in the STEM field have been consistently positive: there is a lot of understanding for organising work and family life at the same time. Free times such as the weekend are very respected. The promotion prospects for women are very good in my view due to targeted promotion measures for the female STEM target group

What does your daily work routine look like?

The most important part of my work at the moment is meetings with doctoral researchers and colleagues, where we discuss, develop and plan the concrete research projects. In some phases I work very intensively on publications. I also like to do that together with others. In addition, like everyone these days, I have to answer a lot of emails. Working days are when we do experiments, observations or surveys ourselves. That is always very exciting. At the moment, we can't travel much because of the Coronavirus pandemic - but in normal times, conference participation and visits to other working groups are part of my job.