Austrian Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research Iris Rauskala (pictured in the center)
As one of the largest Austrian gatherings in North America, the Austrian Research and Innovation Talk – ARIT is hosted annually by the Office of Science and Technology Austria – OSTA with the key goal to connect Austrian scientists based in North America with their peers, as well as with the Austrian STI landscape.
From September 13-14, 2019, the 2019 ARIT drew Austrian scientists and innovators from all over North America to New York City. The ARIT was opened this year by Iris Eliisa Rauskala, the Austrian Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research, as well as Wolfgang Waldner, Austria’s Ambassador to the United States.
In the interconnected industries and societies of tomorrow, the marriage of science and business seems indispensable. The 2019 ARIT was therefore organized to showcase how “Science meets Business”, back to back with the Austria Connect, the annual conference of Advantage Austria. The synergy of this cooperation enabled both organizations to showcase how scientists, entrepreneurs, academia and the private industry can work in conjunction to spur the commercialization of the sciences.
Professors, entrepreneurs, practitioners and innovators from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Aleria, New York University and Health Wildcatters among others underscored the entrepreneurial toolkits available to scientists. Minister Rauskala lauded the ARIT as being the prime venue and format on which to build the necessary scientific bridges between the North America and Austria to facilitate topics such as entrepreneurship education.
As the key Austrian science stage, the ARIT also awarded Austrian scientific excellence in North America, Minister Rauskala presenting the 2019 ASCINA Awards at the annual gathering. Internet security, cancer research and chemical reactions in organic matters featured prominently in the research of the awardee winners: Manuel Egele (Junior Principal Investigator Award Winner - “Hardware Performance Counters Can Detect Malware), Hannes Mikula (Young Scientist Award Winner - “Unraveling Tetrazine-Triggered Bioorthogonal Elimination Enables Chemical Tools for Ultrafast release and Universal Cleavage”), Johannes Reiter (Young Scientist Award Winner - ‘Minimal functional driver gene heterogeneity among untreated metastases’).
During her U.S. visit, Minister Rauskala met with Nobel Laureate Eric Richard Kandel, as well as Fulbright alumni in NYC. These meetings were complemented by a number of high-level bilateral meetings aimed at fostering U.S.-Austrian higher-education ties at both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
All photos:
Copyright: Office of Science and Technology Austria - Washington, DC
Courtesy of: David Keith Photography