Hajo Zeeb appointed deputy chairman of the Radiation Protection Commission

Prof. Dr. Hajo Zeeb has been a member of the Radiation Protection Commission (SSK) since 2021. He heads the Department of Prevention and Evaluation at the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS. He has set himself one goal in particular for his new task.

 Hajo Zeeb at BIPS

Zeeb: "I am very pleased about the trust the Minister has placed in me and my new task." © Jens Lehmkühler / U Bremen Research Alliance

In January, the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), Steffi Lemke, appointed Hajo Zeeb as a member of the Commission on Radiological Protection for another two years and at the same time named him deputy chair of the body for the year 2023.

"I am very pleased about the trust the Minister has placed in me and my new task," says Hajo Zeeb. He adds: "For the time of my membership, I have resolved to intensively contribute my epidemiological expertise to the interdisciplinary discussions and statements of the SSK, so that the radiation protection of the population becomes even better. And as a member of the Steering Committee, I naturally also want to support the effective work of the SSK as a whole."

The SSK is an advisory body to the BMUV and advises the BMUV on matters relating to protection against the hazards of ionising and non-ionising radiation. Membership in the Commission on Radiological Protection is a personal honorary office. The members of the Commission are appointed by the BMUV, are independent and not bound by instructions. The results of the SSK's deliberations are submitted to the BMUV as scientific and technical recommendations or statements.

Hajo Zeeb received his doctorate in medicine from RWTH Aachen University and worked for several years as a doctor in German and English hospitals before going to Namibia for three years as a medical officer. After completing a Master's degree in Public Health at the University of Heidelberg, he then worked at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and later at the University of Bielefeld. There he was involved in numerous epidemiological studies and was active in teaching, especially in the Master of Science in Epidemiology.

At the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Hajo Zeeb worked in the Department of Public Health and Environment before moving to the Institute of Medical Biometry, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI) at the University Hospital Mainz in 2006. Hajo Zeeb is a member of various professional organisations (including the International Epidemiological Association, German Society for Epidemiology), and has also been active for many years in working groups and committees of the Federal Radiation Protection Commission. He is a member of the German delegation to UNSCEAR and has also been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine since 2021.

Hajo Zeeb has a special interest in evidence-based public health. His research interests include evidence-based prevention and evaluation of chronic diseases as well as epidemiological research on migrant health. Research on radiation epidemiology is conducted with partners at Nagasaki University in Japan, among others.

Hajo Zeeb is co-spokesperson of the Science Focus Health Sciences at the University of Bremen. As spokesperson of the Directorate, he has been leading the Leibniz Science Campus Digital Public Health Bremen since 2019.

BIPS - health research in the service of people

The population is at the centre of our research. As an epidemiological research institute, we see our task as identifying the causes of health disorders and developing new concepts for disease prevention. Our research provides the basis for social decisions. It informs the population about health risks and contributes to a healthy living environment.

BIPS is a member of the Leibniz Association, which comprises 97 independent research institutions. The orientation of the Leibniz institutes ranges from the natural sciences, engineering and environmental sciences to economics, spatial sciences, social sciences and the humanities. Leibniz Institutes are dedicated to socially, economically and ecologically relevant issues. Due to their importance for the whole of Germany, the Federal Government and the Länder jointly fund the institutes of the Leibniz Association. The Leibniz Institutes employ around 20,000 people, including 10,000 scientists. The total budget of the institutes is more than 1.9 billion euros.