J (Jiri) Kaan MSc

Education
In 2020 I started the MSc Management, Economics, and Consumer studies - specialising in consumer psychology. I fell in love with research, especially in the area of healthy eating behavior and psychological processes. I was selected for the Graduate Programme of Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS) where I learned more about what an academic career might look like. After my research practice at the University of Vienna, I knew for sure that I wanted to do a PhD.

Research - The Health in All Networks Simulator (HANS)

Social networks have been an important but often neglected feature of community-based health promotion. Yet, advances in social network research has highlighted different strategies for leveraging social networks to improve community-based interventions. Our study will use agent-based modeling to develop an intervention planning tool – the Health in All Networks Simulator (HANS) – to improve the use of social network strategies in health promotion practice in the Netherlands. Working in a co-creative process with community and policy stakeholders, our tool will allow stakeholders and researchers to test virtually different social network intervention strategies and forecast their possible impact on the resiliency, health and wellbeing of Amsterdam adults. Learnings from this project will inform the further development of the HANS and other such tools meant to improve population health and reduce health inequities.