(Vienna, 01 February 2024) Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, suicide researcher at the Center for Public Health, has taken up a professorship (§99/4) in the field of Public Health at MedUni Vienna with effect from 1 February 2024.
Thomas Niederkrotenthaler and his team focus on suicide prevention research and mental public health. This also includes media impact research in traditional and social media. "We are world leaders in this field, with several flagship projects currently underway," explains Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, "MedUni Vienna is a European core center in this area, which will be further strengthened by the professorship."
Other fields of research range from interventions to strengthen psychological resilience, social marginalization, stigmatization and stigma reduction in mental illness to deradicalization and terrorism prevention. Niederkrotenthaler plays a leading role in the development of national and international guidelines in the field of public mental health.
About the person
Thomas Niederkrotenthaler studied medicine at MedUni Vienna, completed a Master of Medical Sciences (specializing in Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention) at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and a PhD at MedUni Vienna. He habilitated with the thesis "Public Health Perspectives on Suicide Risk Factors and Prevention Strategies" and completed a Postgraduate General Management Program at the Executive Academy of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Between 2011 and 2012, he worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta (USA) as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the area of violence, suicide and injury prevention. Since 2014 he has headed the Suicide Research & Mental Health Promotion Unit at the Center for Public Health, and since 2020 he has been Deputy Chair of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine. He is Vice President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and founding chairman of the Wiener Werkstätte für Suizidforschung, the interdisciplinary network of suicide researchers in Austria (www.suizidforschung.at).