Great success for Dr. Helen Fischer

For Dr. Helen Fischer, member of the IWM's Perception and Action Lab, the year 2024 ended with fantastic news:: Her application to the Heisenberg Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG) has been approved. The programme is considered prestigious and competitive, as it is only open to highly qualified researchers with particularly outstanding scientific achievements. It offers researchers who meet all the requirements to be appointed to a permanent professorship an ideal platform to advance their own scientific research programme. Therefore it offers various formats, including the well-known Heisenberg professorship, but also a Heisenberg position or a Heisenberg fellowship.

In terms of content, her application was aimed at expanding her research into the topic of metacognition - the ability to critically assess one's own knowledge and thinking. She is particularly interested in the question of what role metacognition plays in forming opinions on politicised scientific topics such as climate change or Covid-19. Her work provides important insights into how people evaluate scientific information and make decisions.

The DFG reviewers particularly emphasised Helen Fischer's exceptional academic productivity, which is especially impressive in light of her motherhood of two children. Her Google Scholar profile documents 19 publications in peer-reviewed journals, two handbook articles and several preprints in the last five years alone. ‘Being accepted into the Heisenberg Programme is a great opportunity for me to further expand my research under very comfortable and free conditions,’ says Helen Fischer.