Professor Heike Solga
Professor of Sociology
WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Research Unit „Skill Formation and Labor Markets“
Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Sociology
Photo: David Ausserhofer
Professional career and research topics
Heike Solga studied sociology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where she graduated in 1988. She completed her Master of Arts at Stanford University in 1991 before earning her doctorate at Freie Universität Berlin in 1994.
Since 2008, Heike Solga has been Professor of sociology with a focus on work, the labour market and employment at Freie Universität Berlin and director of the Research Unit „Skill Formation and Labor Markets“ at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. Previously, she was a professor at Leipzig University, the Georg August University of Göttingen and a visiting professor at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), the University of Zurich, Yale University and the WZB. Furthermore, she headed the Sociological Research Institute (SOFI) at the University of Göttingen from 2006 to 2010.
She was appointed IAB Research Fellow in 2024.
Heike Solga’s research interests comprise education, training and the labour market.
She has published her research findings in numerous major journals, such as European Sociological Review, Socio-Economic Review, Sociology of Education and Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.