Melanie Jaeger-Erben has been Head of Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research in Electronics at TU Berlin from 2019 to 2021. Her work focuses on consumption and social science technology research as well as social innovation and change. She is particularly involved in devising strategies for promoting sustainable production and consumption systems.

She has led the junior research group on Obsolescence as a Challenge for Sustainability at TU Berlin from 2016 to 2022. The group’s work is focused on examining the phenomenon of obsolescence from social, economic, engineering and legal perspectives. As the throwaway culture associated with excessively short lifespans for electronic devices causes serious social and ecological harm, the junior research group of TU Berlin and the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) was working under Prof. Dr. Melanie Jaeger-Erben’s lead to develop strategies designed to promote more sustainable production and consumption.

The scientist studied psychology and sociology at the Universities of Göttingen and Uppsala (Sweden) and completed postgraduate studies in qualitative social and educational research methods at the University of Magdeburg. She obtained her doctorate in sociology at TU Berlin in 2010.