Karsten Valerius

Karsten Valerius is a Research Associate and PhD Candidate at the Division of Health Psychology, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2023, he has been working on the AMBER project ("Active mobility for maintained benefits of health and environment"), which investigates the health and environmental impacts of active transportation through citizen science initiatives like "Mobil auf Deine Weise".

His research spans Environmental Health, Risk Communication, Mental Health, and Public Health, with specific focus on threat appraisal in low-exposure environmental risks (e.g., forest fires), help-seeking barriers for mental health in rural populations, and active mobility's role in sustainable health outcomes. Methodologically, he employs mixed-methods designs to address real-world challenges across rural and urban contexts.

Valerius's recent publications (2021-2024) reveal interdisciplinary trends at the intersection of environmental science, psychiatry, and transportation studies. His work consistently examines how sociodemographic factors, risk perception, and environmental exposures influence health behaviors and service utilization, particularly in underserved rural communities.

Currently funded by third-party grants for the AMBER project, he previously contributed to forest fire risk awareness research at the University of Bern and medical care expectation studies in Western Pomerania at the University of Leipzig. His collaborative work engages international teams across Germany, Switzerland, and citizen science networks.

Based at Freie Universität Berlin's Department of Education and Psychology, Valerius integrates environmental sustainability with public health through active transportation research while advancing his doctoral studies in health psychology.