Upcoming: Austrian Research and Innovation Talk 2015

The Office of Science and Technology Austria (OSTA), located within the Embassy of Austria in Washington, D.C., has been garnering a network of Austrian scientists and innovators in North America for the past 15 years.

To bolster the cooperation amongst the scientific Austrian diaspora in North America, the Austrian Research and Innovation Talk (ARIT) is hosted annually. The 2015 ARIT will take place from November 06-07, 2015 in San Francisco and will attract local innovators from the Bay Area and high-level policy stakeholders from Austria alike. With the backdrop of San Francisco, the ARIT will seek to foster further cooperation between the Austrian and American STI community. 

Past ARIT’s have been held in Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and other major hubs in the U.S. Former participants of the ARIT have included Nobel Laureates such as Eric Kandel, Martin Karplus or Walter Kohn. This year's The ARIT constitutes one of the largest European scientific diaspora meetings in North America.

The Office of Science and Technology, and ARIT are supported by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, and the Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs.

Watch the ARIT 2015 Live on Saturday here , and from Sunday on demand here (in German). 

Call for Applications – Research Fellowship in Evolutionary Dynamics

Harvard University. Photo: Wikipedia/ Chensiyuan

The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation proposes to elect a Research Fellow in Evolutionary Dynamics. The successful candidate will work with Martin Nowak at Harvard University. The Fellowship will be awarded for two years.

Detailed information regarding eligibility requirements and the application procedure can be found on the website of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation. 

Foreign Minister Kurz at the United Nations

Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz at the UNGA. Photo: Dragan Tatic

On October 1, 2015, Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz delivered the Austrian Statement at the leader’s week of the 70th Session of the United Nation’s General Assembly (UNGA). Afterwards, he met with representatives of Jewish Organisations.

Foreign Minister Kurz with the President of the World Jewish Congress and former U.S. Ambassador to Austria, Ronald Lauder

Austrian-American Day Reception in New York City

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Austrian Federal President Heinz Fischer (center-right) mingles with guests. 

Austrian Federal President Heinz Fischer, Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, Minister for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management Andrä Rupprechter and Minister for Education and Women’s Affairs Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek attended a reception to celebrate the Austrian-American Day at the Austrian Consulate General in New York. The event was hosted by Consul General Georg Heindl and the President of the „Austrian-American-Councils of North America“ Juliana Belcsak.

Austrian Parliamentary Delegation in Washington, D.C. and at the Austrian National Day Reception

From left: Werner Amon, Hannes Weninger, Ambassador Brigitte Brenner, Andreas Karlsböck.

Werner Amon, Andreas Karlsböck, Peter Pilz (not pictured) and Hannes Weninger, all members of the Austrian National Council (the Austrian House of Representatives), visited Washington, D.C.  from October 26 to 28, 2015. At the beginning of their working trip, they attended the Austrian National Day Reception, hosted by Ambassador Hans Peter Manz for more than 600 guests in the ballroom and terrace of the Embassy. Expats and friends of Austria celebrated while enjoying the country's cuisine and culture.

In the framework of the "Parliamentary Intelligence Security Forum", the delegation attended meetings at the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the U.S. Treasury on the transatlantic relationship, counter-terrorism financing, money laundering, cybersecurity/espionage/intelligence and financial crimes. 

For more photos, please visit the Embassy's Flickr album.

Fulbright Austria and the German Studies Association Annual Conference

Ambassador Hans Peter Manz welcomes guests to the event.

On the occasion of the 39th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association (GSA) in Washington, D.C. and to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the Austrian-American Fulbright Program, the Embassy of Austria and Fulbright Austria hosted Austrian Fulbright alumni and Austrianists from the GSA conference at a reception at the Embassy on October 3, 2015. 

Following introductory remarks by Ambassador Hans Peter Manz, Dr. Lonnie Johnson, executive director of Fulbright Austria, gave an overview of the development of the Fulbright program in Austria. 

In addition to Fulbright Austria, event partners included the Austrian Press- and Information Service, the Austrian Cultural Fora in Washington and New York, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, and the Office of Science and Technology Austria in Washington, D.C.

Furthermore, on the occasion of the evening, several grants and prizes were awarded: the R. John Rath Prize for the best article in the Austrian History Yearbook 2015 went to Balint Varga for his article "The Rise and Fall of an Austrian Identity in the Provincial Historiography of Bukovina." The Radomir Luza Prize for an outstanding work in the field of Austrian or Czechoslovak World War II studies (awarded by the American friends of the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance/Vienna and supported by Center Austria/New Orleans) was awarded to Dr. Sarah Cramsey from Tulane University for her University of California – Berkeley dissertation directed by John Connolly "Uncertain Citizenship: Jewish Belonging and the Ethnic Revolution in Poland and Czechoslovakia, 1938-1948."

In addition, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and the Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Economy awarded travel grants to young scholars participating in the GSA conference. 

For more information on Fulbright Austria, please visit http://www.fulbright.at

Ambassador Kmentt Receives the Nuclear Free Future Award

Image: Green Cross

On October 28, Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, head of the Department for Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, received the Nuclear Free Future Award in the category special recognition. This award is the second distinction for Ambassador Kmentt in Washington, D.C. this year, after being named “2014 Arms Control person of the year” in May.

For more information, visit http://www.nuclear-free-future.com/en/award-presentation/laureates/alexander-kmentt 

Lecture: "Meteorites: Cosmic Messengers at the Natural History Museum in Vienna"

Meteorites on display at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. Photo: NHM

On October 28, 2015, Christian Köberl, director general of the Natural History Museum in Vienna (NHM), delivered a lecture entitled "Meteorites: Cosmic Messengers at the Natural History Museum in Vienna" at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

According to Köberl, the meteorites' composition is crucial for unraveling the physical and chemical processes of the early solar nebula, and to deduce the origin of the chemical elements. In some rare cases, there are unusual meteorite encounters with the Earth, such as the Tunguska (1908) or Chelkyabinsk (2013) airbursts, or devastating impact events. The importance of impact cratering on the Moon or the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars) is obvious from the abundance of craters on their surfaces. On Earth, active geological processes rapidly obliterate the cratering record. Impacts influenced the geological and biological evolution of our own planet. Even the impact of relatively small asteroids or comets can have disastrous consequences for our civilization.

The NHM Vienna is one of the world's largest and oldest natural science museums, and a research institution as well. It holds the oldest meteorite collection in the world, as well as the largest meteorite display, including many historical and scientifically important objects. The topics mentioned above are incorporated in the new meteorite hall at the museum. 

Christian Koeberl is the director general of the Natural History Museum Vienna, Austria, and full professor of geosciences (planetary geology) at the University of Vienna, where he is the deputy head of the Department of Lithospheric Research. He is a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where he also heads the Committee on Geosciences. Koeberl studied chemistry, physics, and astronomy at the Technical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna, and obtained his PhD in 1983 at the University of Graz. His publication record includes over 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers; asteroid 15963 is named "Koeberl" in his honor.

Fifth Graders visit the Embassy

H.D. Cooke Elementary School 5th graders with Director of Press and Information Thorsten Eisingerich sporting his own traditional outfit on the occasion.

In the framework of the “Embassy Adoption Programme” (EAP) for public schools in Washington, D.C., thirteen 5th graders from H.D. Cooke Elementary School in Washington, D.C. and their teachers visited the Austrian Embassy on October 28, 2015 to hear about Austria in what turned out to be a very interactive session. After the initial presentation, the kids toured the present exhibition of traditional Austrian clothing, inspiring them to create their own Austrian gowns, flags and crests in an afternoon of didactics and fun.

Ambassador Hans Peter Manz is Branching Out

The Ambassadors of Slovakia, Nigeria and Austria (from left) plant a tree. Photo: Julian Steiner

On Friday, October 30, 2015, the Embassy of Austria planted trees as part of the Office of Foreign Missions’ (OFM) “OFM Branching Out” initiative in support of the Department’s Greening Diplomacy Initiative. Ambassador Hans Peter Manz, DCM Christian Brunmayr, the Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum Andreas Pawlitschek, and Commercial Attaché Klaus Hofstadler planted five trees in proximity of the OFM. The trees were generously sponsored by Swarovski Optik (www.swarovskioptik.com). After the event, Ambassador Manz welcomed all planting teams for lunch at the Embassy.

The event was a collaborative tree planting in which U.S. Department of State partnered with foreign diplomats, the non-profit Casey Trees, and local “citizen foresters” to plant 31 trees at the International Cultural Center (ICC), a 47-acre Department of State-owned enclave where 21 foreign missions, among them the Embassy of Austria, are located.