Health data scientist Christoph Lippert, who until recently headed the “Statistical Genomics” research group at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, will take up a new position on September 1st at the Faculty of Digital Engineering, a faculty jointly founded by the University of Potsdam (UP) and the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI).

As an expert for digital health with an emphasis on machine learning, Lippert’s work will explore the theory of machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as novel applications in medicine. The focus is on advancing the capabilities to predict personal health risks and supporting the personalized prevention of health issues and diseases.

“We are very pleased to welcome Christoph Lippert to the University of Potsdam,” said University President Oliver Günther, PhD. “Our two new faculties, the Faculty of Digital Engineering and the Faculty of Health Sciences, enable the exploration of completely new directions at the interface between informatics and medicine. This means supporting strong synergies between both areas of specialization. Dr. Lippert perfectly embodies these synergies and cooperation potential,” Günther said.

“Machine learning and artificial intelligence offer exciting perspectives for the medicine of the future. Gaining the expertise of Christoph Lippert means that we will have a specialist who will advance the research and teaching at HPI in this important field,” said the Dean of the joint faculty at HPI and UP, Professor Christoph Meinel.

“Christoph Lippert will be a great asset to our faculty,” said Professor Erwin Böttinger, Head of the HPI Digital Health Center and Professor for Digital Health, whose research is focused on personalized medicine. “With his outstanding international recognition in health data science, Christoph Lippert will leverage the excellent environment at the HPI Digital Health Center to advance precision health and personalized medicine with cutting-edge human data science,” Böttinger added.

Lippert studied bioinformatics from 2001–2008 in Munich and went on to earn his doctorate at the Max Planck Institutes for Intelligent Systems and for Developmental Biology in Tübingen in the field of computational biology, with an emphasis on genome-associated studies. In 2012 he accepted a position in the US at Microsoft Research and subsequently carried out work at Human Longevity, Inc. In 2017 Lippert returned to Germany to head the research group “Statistical Genomics” at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine.

Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam is Germany’s university excellence center for digital engineering (https://hpi.de). With its bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in “IT Systems Engineering” as well as its master’s degree programs in “Digital Health” and “Data Engineering” the Faculty of Digital Engineering, established jointly by HPI and the University of Potsdam, offers an especially practical and engineering-oriented study program in computer science that is unique throughout Germany. At present, more than 500 students are enrolled in the program. HPI consistently earns a top-notch place in the CHE University Ranking. The HPI School of Design Thinking is Europe’s first innovation school for university students. It is based on the Stanford model of the d.school and offers 240 places annually for a supplementary study. At HPI there are currently thirteen professors and over 50 guest professors and lecturers. HPI conducts research noted for its high standard of excellence in its IT topic areas. PhD candidates carry out research at the HPI Research School in Potsdam and its branches in Cape Town, Haifa, Nanjing and at the recently opened office in New York. The focus of HPI’s teaching and research is on the foundations and applications of large, highly complex and networked IT systems. In addition, HPI concentrates on the development and research of user-oriented innovations for all areas of life.