Professor Thomas Niederkrotenthaler is an Associate Professor of Public Health and research group lead for suicide prevention at the Medical University Vienna, Austria. He is also the founding chair-man of the Wiener Werkstaette for Suicide Research (www.suizidforschung.at ), one of the leading suicide research groups in middle Europe.

Thomas’s research / prevention interests focus on 4 main areas: Protective roles of media in suicide prevention (Papageno/ Werther effects); Familial risk factors for suicidal behaviour; labour market marginalization after suicidal behavior; and the evaluation of interventions for suicide prevention. Together with his team, he has first identified and characterized suicide-preventive potentials of media narratives of mastery of crisis, hope and recovery from suicidal ideation, the Papageno effect, and has published extensively in this area.

Thomas has had leading roles in the development and evaluation of media campaigns for suicide prevention internationally. He guided the revision of the most recent WHO / IASP media guidelines for suicide reporting and contributed to their adaption to entertainment media.  He worked in several roles within IASP before being elected as Vice-President, most recently as IASP’s Treasurer (2017-2020). Thomas is committed to improving communication processes in IASP and developing media strategies as they relate to suicide prevention.