About
Who we are.
The world is changing faster than we can understand it. Yet many decisions that shape the lives of thousands or millions of people still rest on small samples and a limited view of the people they affect.
Zeitgeist Labs is building the institute for the next generation of applied social and health research.
We develop scientific methods and technologies that combine the depth of qualitative research with the breadth of quantitative research. Our researchers stay at the centre. AI extends what they can do: include more people, find knowledge that would otherwise stay hidden, and see patterns that conventional methods miss.
We want to help answer the big questions of our time, and to make sure the answers reach the people who decide.
Where we come from
Founders
Mahdi Srour
Founder
Doctoral researcher in computational social science at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, working with Prof. Hartmut Rosa. Mahdi studies social energy in educational contexts and investigates social dynamics across individuals, groups and institutions. His work combines theoretical and empirical approaches with computational and system dynamics modelling. Previously, he conducted research at MIT and Northeastern University on artificial intelligence, human behaviour and collective dynamics.
Edgar Eggert
Founder
Doctoral researcher at Charité Berlin and Stanford, working at the intersection of AI and medicine, including foundation models for multimodal health data (high-frequency wearables, surveys, exposure data), with publications in The Lancet Planetary Health and at NeurIPS. Previously spent several years at McKinsey, bringing data science and AI to global companies and federal agencies. Studied computer science, specialising in machine learning, at Imperial College London, and PPE at the London School of Economics, with a focus on philosophy of science and statistics.
Team
Fiona Borsetzky
Researcher
Doctoral researcher in economics at Bielefeld University, specialising in economic theory and computational economics, and a member of the graduate school for modelling the Anthropocene at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena. Fiona studies how social and economic inequality and climate change shape each other. Using agent-based models, she examines how individual decisions, social interactions and institutional settings combine to produce complex social dynamics.
Fellowship
The Zeitgeist Labs Fellowship lets selected Master’s and PhD students work with our research infrastructure. Register your interest here.
Careers
We are always looking for curious people. If that is you, write to us.
Send your CV and a few lines on what you would like to work on to careers@zeitgeistlabs.ai