Oskar Burger (he/him) | Senior Research Manager | oburger@omni.org

Oskar brings more than 15 years of experience in social and behavioral science research including data analysis, survey design, and program management to OMNI. He has broad training in anthropology and demography with recently developed expertise in child and maternal health. Oskar’s day-to-day approach to project work incorporates outcomes-focused and evidence-based best practices, capacity building, and the identification of benchmarks to build transparency, accountability, and resiliency.

Before joining OMNI in 2022, Oskar was Director of Design & Development at the University of Texas at Austin’s Center of Applied Cognitive Sciences. In that capacity, he directed the study design, analysis, and management for Project RISE, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded mixed-methods project aimed at applying data on beliefs, behaviors, sources of information, and other factors to the design of an intervention to improve motivation and performance of community health workers in Bihar, India. Oskar also led the study design, analysis, and management of Project EvoLearn, a National Science Foundation-funded international study of learning and teaching behavior in children in a global sample of 12 different countries.

“In the mission of using data to drive positive social change, OMNI excels in both ideals and execution. I couldn’t be more thrilled (or humbled) to join this amazing team.”

Content Expertise

Community Health

Children and Families

Education

Education

University of New Mexico
Ph.D., Anthropology
M.S., Anthropology

Colorado State University
M.A., Anthropology

University of Wyoming
B.A., Anthropology

+ Selected Publications

  1. Burger, O., F. Hashmi, M. J. Dańko, S. Akhauri, I. Chaudhuri, E. Little… et al. (In revision) Facilitating behavioral change: A comparative assessment of ASHA efficacy in rural Bihar, PLOS Gobal Public Health.
  2. Burger, O., R. Lee, R. Sear. (editors) (Forthcoming) Human Evolutionary Demography, Open Book Publishers. https://osf.io/p59eu/.
  3. Burger, O., L. Chen, A. Erut, F. Fong, B. Rawlings, C. H. Legare. (In press) Developing Cross-Cultural Data Infrastructures (CCDIs) for research in cognitive and behavioral sciences, Review of Philosophy and Psychology.
  4. N. B. Dutra, L. Chen, A. Anum, O. Burger, H. E. Davis, V. A. Dzokoto, F. T. K. Fong… et al.. (2022) Examining relations between performance on non-verbal executive function and verbal self-regulation tasks in demographically-diverse populations, Developmental Science.
  5. Burger, O., M. J. Dańko, F. Hashmi, P. Singh, H. Lunkenheimer, E. Little, M. Goldwater, T. Johnson, C. Legare. (2022) Bridging the gap between service extension and cultural facilitation among ASHAs, Bookdown, https://bookdown.org/oskarevolearn/rise/ (Draft Report to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)
  6. Burger, O., B. Rawlings, E. Messer, L. Chen, and C. Legare. (2021) Project EvoLearn: Data Collection Methods and Protocols, https://utexas.box.com/v/EvoLearnManualBeta
  7. Lunkenheimer, H., O. Burger, S. Akhauri, I. Chaudhuri, L. Dibbell, F. Hashmi, T. Johnson, E. Lit- tle, S. Mondal, N. Mor, N. Saldanha, J. Schooley, C. Legare. (2021) Tradition, taste and taboo: the gastroecology of maternal perinatal diet. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 375 (1805).
  8. Legare, C.L., S. Akhauri, I. Chaudhuri, F. Hashmi, T. Johnson, E. Little, H. Lunkenheimer, A. Mandel- baum, H. Mandlik, S. Mondal, N. Mor, N. Saldanha, J. Schooley, P. Sharda, S. Subbiah, S. Swarup, M. Tikkanen, O. Burger. (2020) Perinatal risk and the cultural ecology of health in Bihar, India. Philosoph- ical Transactions of the Royal Society B 375 (1805).
  9. Burger, O. and J. DeLong. (2016) What if fertility decline is not permanent? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, vol. 371(1692).
  10. Hruschka, D. and O. Burger. (2016) How does variance in fertility change over the demographic transition? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, vol. 371(1692).
  11. Burger, O., A. Baudisch, J.W. Vaupel. (2012) Human mortality improvement in evolutionary context. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Vol 109(44), 18210–18214.

+ Book Chapters & Other Writing

  1. Burger, O. (2017). Evolutionary Demography of the Human Mortality Profile. The Evolution of Senescence in the Tree of Life, 105.
  2. Burger, O., & Todd, L. C. (2006). Grain, extent, and intensity: the components of scale in archaeological survey. In Confronting scale in archaeology (pp. 235-255). Springer, Boston, MA
  3. Burger, O., R. Lee, R. Sear. (editors) (Forthcoming) Human Evolutionary Demography, Open Book Publishers. https://osf.io/p59eu/.
  4. Burger, O., M. J. Dańko, F. Hashmi, P. Singh, H. Lunkenheimer, E. Little, M. Goldwater, T. Johnson, C. Legare. (2022) Bridging the gap between service extension and cultural facilitation among ASHAs; Draft Report to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bookdown, https://bookdown.org/oskarevolearn/rise/
  5. Burger, O., B. Rawlings, E. Messer, L. Chen, and C. Legare. (2021) Project EvoLearn: Data Collection Methods and Protocols

+ Awards & Service

  • Student’s Choice Teaching Award, University of Kent, England, 2016
  • Awarded “distinction” by the University of New Mexico Department of Anthropology for: Comprehensive exams, Dissertation defense, and graduation (2004 – 2009)
  • LSB Leakey Foundation General Research Grant for fieldwork in Venezuela.
  • Santa Fe Institute; International CSSS Alumni Fellow; Complex Systems Summer School 2006, Beijing.

What is your favorite thing to "nerd out" on?
Music; professional basketball; backpacking; the latest cultural event

How do you pronounce “gif”?
Like the peanut butter, I think

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An archaeologist