Eva S. Schernhammer

Background

About Eva S. Schernhammer

Eva S. Schernhammer is Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Medical University of Vienna, Adjunct Professor at the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Investigator at Mass General Brigham in Boston, as well as an Associate Faculty member at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna. She is one of the founders of ASciNA (Austrian Scientists in North America), where she served many years as President and Board member. Eva is best known for her studies on disturbances of the circadian clock and their role in human health. One of the pioneers of circadian epidemiology, she leads a group of scientists in Vienna and at Harvard who study these concepts, using longitudinal population studies. Her projects center around the complexity and fragility of the circadian system in humans, incorporate biomarkers, and transgenerational, gender, and age-specific aspects into her research, and apply standard and advanced statistical and mathematical modelling. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Eva's work shifted to focus on the epidemiology of infectious diseases. Collaborating with a distinguished group of international scientists and her own research team at the Department of Epidemiology within the Center for Public Health at the Medical University of Vienna, she studied the characteristics of outbreaks and examined their potentially far-reaching consequences. Eva’s work has received prestigious international awards and is frequently featured in media outlets worldwide. She has been an elected Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 2024, and a Member of Academia Europaea and the European Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2022.