About

Dr. Heike Krüger

Quantitative Social Scientist | Health Data Science & Social Networks, University of Cologne & RWTH Aachen University

Quantitative Data Analysis, Health Research, Sensor Data, Social Network Analysis, Intensive Longlitudinal Data, Ecological Momentary Assessment, Digital Behavioral Data

Professional Appointments

November 2022–present. Research Associate, Chair of Methods of Empirical Social Research, Institute of Sociology, RWTH Aachen University. Teaching and research in quantitative empirical social research, social network analysis with R, AI-supported research, and the Peer-Smart project.
October 2018–March 2019 and April 2021–present. Research Associate, Chair of Sociology I, Department of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne. Teaching in sociology and quantitative data analysis with Stata and R.
April 2019–March 2021. Research Associate, Chair of Sociology I, University of Cologne. Project researcher in the SOCIALBOND project, including school-based social network data collection, smartphone-based experience sampling, data cleaning, statistical analysis, and research reporting.

Education

October 2019–March 2024. Doctoral studies in Social Sciences, University of Cologne. Dissertation: Social Ties and Mental Health in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Insights from Ecological Momentary Assessment and Social Network Analysis. Main areas: medical sociology, quantitative methods, and social network analysis.
October 2016–September 2019. M.Sc. Sociology and Social Research, University of Cologne. Thesis: Big Five and Perceived Social Support: A Social Network Analysis of Reciprocal Causation using RSiena. Main areas: sociology of youth, sociology of the family, quantitative methods, and social network analysis.
April 2013–September 2016. B.Sc. Social Sciences, University of Cologne. Thesis: Parental Parenting Styles and Adolescents' Self-Control: An Empirical Analysis. Main areas: sociology, social psychology, and quantitative methods.

Grants

2026. Parental Support, Risk-Taking, and Adolescent Mental Health (PaRT-AMH). Reinhard Selten Institute, Universities of Bonn and Cologne. Total funding: EUR 2,450.
2024. Peer-Smart Network Study – Smartphone-Based Study of Social Networks and Student Well-Being. RWTH Start-Up Projects, RWTH Aachen University. Grant number: StUpPD_465-24. Total funding: EUR 19,950.

Awards

2026. Recipient of the inaugural Marie Jahoda Best Early Paper Award, awarded by the Section Medical and Health Sociology of the German Sociological Association (DGS) at the DGS Congress in Mainz. The award recognized the article Everyday discrimination, co-ethnic social support and mood changes in young adult immigrants in Germany: Evidence from an ecological momentary assessment study, published in Journal of Migration and Health.

Professional Service and Committees

July 2025–present. Editorial Board Member, European Journal of Mental Health.
November 2024–present. Board Member, Section Sociological Network Research, German Sociological Association (DGS).
October 2024–present. Co-coordinator of the working group “Social Networks and Health”, German Society for Network Research (DGNet).
October 2025-July 2026. Co-organizer of the 1st and 2nd DGNet Methods Schools.
February 2027. Co-organizer of the conference Social Networks and Health: Reciprocal Interdependencies.
Call for Papers (PDF)

Methodological Training

April 2026. Introduction to Computational Text Analysis with R. GESIS Training.
June 2025. The goldfish Package in R: Estimating Dynamic Network Actor Models. Sunbelt Pre-Conference Workshop, Paris.
June 2024. Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) using Statnet. Sunbelt Pre-Conference Workshop, Edinburgh.
June 2024. Micro-Macro Analysis in Social Networks using netmediate. Sunbelt Pre-Conference Workshop, Edinburgh.
June 2024. Introduction to the Analysis of Multilevel Networks and Analysing Multilevel Network Dynamics using multiS. Sunbelt Pre-Conference Workshop, Edinburgh.
April 2023. Using Smartphone Sensors, Apps, and Wearables in Social Science Research. GESIS Training.
April 2022. Data Wrangling with R and the tidyverse. Statistical Horizons.
December 2021. Introduction to Modern Causal Analysis. GESIS Training.
November 2020. Intensive Longitudinal Methods. Statistical Horizons.
March 2018. Longitudinal Network Analysis Using RSiena. GESIS Spring Seminar.
July 2017. Big Data Module I: Introduction to Data Science with Python. GESIS Method Seminar.

Software and Tools

Statistical software: R, Stata.
Survey and web tools: LimeSurvey, Typo3.
Research and productivity tools: EndNote, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Office.
Languages: German, English, basic French.