February 06, 2026 | News | New Research Group

New Max Planck Research Group on Medical Demography

Interview with Marcus Ebeling, head of the newly founded research group

For more than five decades, the Max Planck Research Groups have been a key focus of promoting young scientists within the Max Planck Society. The selection process for group leader positions is rigorous. Last year, Marcus Ebeling, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully completed the process. He will lead the 'Medical Demography' research group from July onwards.

The Medical Demography research group will examine how the accumulation of diseases changes over the course of a lifetime and what these changes imply for longevity, population health, healthcare utilization, and population resilience. © iStockphoto.com / pcess609

Marcus Ebeling applied for the Max Planck Research Group in September 2024. He was one of the successful candidates who were selected to lead their own research group. Starting on 1 July 2026, the research group will be based at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock and conduct research on the topic of 'Medical Demography'. He is currently looking for staff to join his team.

What is the central topic of your research group?

Medical progress has become one of the most influential forces shaping population structure and dynamics. Populations are increasingly consisting of individuals with complex disease histories, while the presence of disease no longer necessarily implies poor health. Rising life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, alongside the increasing prevalence of multimorbidity illustrate this. My research group will focus on the intended and unintended demographic consequences of these processes. Our aim is to understand how the accumulation of diseases over the life course changes and what these changes imply for longevity, population health, healthcare utilization, and population resilience.

Why do we need Medical Demography?

Medical demography studies how the accumulation of diseases over the life course affects population structure, dynamics, and health. Medical progress is rapidly changing this relationship. This creates many new questions and challenges. How are the presence and impact of diseases connected? How does the diffusion of medical progress and healthcare affect population-level outcomes? Demography can provide significant insights into these topics. However, to realize the full potential of demographic research, we need to refine our perspective and methods. We also need to collaborate more beyond our own field with experts in related areas such as medicine and ethics. This is the essence of medical demography, but it has an even broader relevance. Population health improvements can be compared to the game Jenga, where blocks are moved from the bottom to the top until the tower becomes unstable and collapses. With population health improvements, we are also building higher and higher, but we do not yet know if these improvements stand on a weak foundation or if the structure will remain stable. In practice, many people with chronic diseases are well managed medically and are less restricted by their diseases. However, this depends on them living in a low-risk environment with reliable healthcare. When societies face external stressors such as a pandemic, climate extremes or healthcare shortages, this can quickly change. Therefore, medical demography is also central to understanding population resilience, and consequently the foundations of population health and its future development.

What challenges are you preparing yourself for in your research?

An increasing amount of high-resolution longitudinal health data is becoming available, including detailed disease diagnoses, biomarkers and treatment histories. While this creates many great opportunities, it poses challenges to our traditional demographic approaches. To advance medical demography, we will need to refine these approaches and develop new ones. Another challenge comes from the demographic perspective, which is often concerned with how "goods" such as life years or new treatments are distributed among individuals, and how this effects population-level outcomes. We will face interesting yet challenging questions that need to be addressed within medical demography, such as the distribution of medical innovations or the limits of medical progress and the role of quality of life, particularly at the end of life. Collaborating across disciplines can also be challenging. But I have always enjoyed this way of working and found it very rewarding. I am looking forward to all this.

What is the main objective of your research group?

Our mission is to advance the field of medical demography by building on existing approaches and developing new conceptual, methodological and empirical foundations. The research group offers a unique opportunity to develop the distinct identity of medical demography and to provide a hub for researchers in the field to connect and collaborate. At the same time, we will work to provide answers on the intended and unintended demographic consequences of medical progress.