Dr Ivo Ponocny elected Dean of the PhD program

MODUL University Vienna is pleased to announce that Associate Professor Dr Ivo Ponocny has been elected Dean of the PhD program in Business and Socioeconomic Sciences.

Ivo holds a PhD in psychology and a master’s degree in mathematics. His career started at the University of Vienna, where he also earned his habilitation in psychological methodology, and then continued at Statistics Austria. He has been member of MODUL University from the very beginning and is now head of the Department for Applied Statistics and Economics. His main research activities include statistical methods, large-scale educational assessment studies such as PISA, and a special focus on the assessment of subjective well-being.

“When taking over the PhD program from its creator, Prof. Emeritus Harvey Goldstein, I was immediately fascinated by the high level of basic procedural understanding as well as sophisticated scientific skills which is the backbone of the whole curriculum,’’ says Ivo. Our postgraduate students get intensely trained in advanced quantitative and also qualitative methods, which ensures their methodological competence and will enable them to fulfill all requirements of professional research in their future positions.”

Dr Ponocny holds the conviction that that offering a PhD program comes with responsibilities - a responsibility towards the future graduates to prepare them for their careers, and a responsibility towards society as our graduates are prepared to fill leading positions in the academic or professional community.

‘’Receiving higher education, in particular on doctoral level is becoming a privilege, which not every talented person is able to enjoy, as statistics keep telling us. Therefore we will work hard on our scholarship offers and support underutilized minorities as much as possible.”

The PhD program has with a highly interdisciplinary orientation, with potential topics ranging from tourism and economics to sustainable development and quality of life. However, top-level science is encountering new challenges.

‘’In a post-factual society, flooded by ‘alternative facts’, scientists cannot rely on their authority alone anymore but have to demonstrate the soundness of their approaches. Therefore, profound consideration and a well-reflected choice from a rich scientific toolkit will be less dispensable than ever,” says Ivo.

The faculty and staff of MODUL University Vienna wish Ivo the best of success in his new position!