I am affiliated with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), where I am part of the Population and Just Societies (POPJUS) program. Previously, I worked at the Bocconi Institute for Data Science and Analytics (BIDSA) with Daniele Durante and at the Institute for Statistics and Mathematics at WU Vienna with Sylvia Frühwirth-Schnatter. I obtained my PhD in economics with a focus on Bayesian econometrics at WU Vienna, under the supervision of Jésus Crespo Cuaresma and Sylvia Frühwirth-Schnatter and have also served as a statistical consultant for the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation within the World Bank Group.

Research Focus

My research focuses on developing and applying quantitative methods for high-dimensional and structured data, motivated by questions in economics, human migration, demography, and the social sciences more broadly. Methodologically, I am particularly interested in Bayesian statistics, with an emphasis on computational techniques, scalable probabilistic inference, and interpretable modeling. I collaborate closely with economists, sociologists, demographers, and climate scientists, and translate my work into practice through open-source R packages.

Contact

zens [at] iiasa.ac.at
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Population and Just Societies Program
Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Laxenburg, Austria