Professor Jutta Mata

Professor Jutta Mata studied Psychology in Göttingen and Lisbon and at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She earned a doctoral degree from the International Max Planck Research School LIFE. After research stays in Lisbon, Stanford, and Basel, she was appointed professor at the University of Mannheim and has been the holder of the chair of Health Psychology since 2015. Her research focuses on factors influencing health and disease, particularly in connection with nutrition, physical activity, and obesity. Mata is also co-director of the Mannheim Center for Data Science and an associated researcher at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. She is a member of the interest group on humanity, climate, sustainability (“Mensch, Klima, Nachhaltigkeit”) of the German Psychological Society, of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), of the Board of Trustees of GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and chair of the board of academic advisors of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). From 2018 until 2022, Jutta Mata was the university’s central equal opportunity commissioner.