Election of the new Executive Committee of the Academy

Ulrich Diebold, Christian Windehorst and Wolfgang Bomjohan complete the team of future Academy President Heinz Wassmann.

Vienna – The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) has a new Executive Committee: At its plenary meeting on April 22, 2022, members of the Physical Academy elected Ulrike Diebold as vice-chair of the ÖAW, legal scholar Christian Windehorst as chair of the Historical Philosophical chapter and space researcher Wolfgang Baumjohan as chair of the mathematics and natural sciences class at the OeAW.

This completes the management team of Austria’s largest non-university institution for basic research led by geographer Heinz Weissmann. The newly elected Executive Committee has been elected for a term of five years and will take office on 1 July 2022 from the current Executive Committee, which consists of Anton Zeilinger, Arnold Suban, Oliver Jens Schmidt and Georges Brassor.

Top management has become more female

“I look forward to working in this strong team, which will shape the future of OeAW with all its strength and commitment in the best possible way. Together we wish to promote excellent research, further expand the Academy and make better use of the European research area in Austria,” said the President-designate of the Academy, Heinz Wassmann. . For him, the fact that the executive committee is made up of 50 percent women for the first time is an important step toward making the academy more female. Wassman asserts: “The new Executive Committee benefits from the wealth of experience and broad range of topics of its newly elected members. This combination of expertise and diversity also characterizes the OeAW as a whole and is a guarantee of innovation and innovation.”

Vice President-designate Ulric Diebold is convinced of this, too. The Academy is a beacon in the research landscape. It achieves outstanding scientific achievements, which also contributes at the international level to the advancement of research clearly. Considering the public role of the OeAW, she adds: “Especially in times of rampant scientific uncertainty, it is especially important for me to communicate what science is achieving to society.” Diebold has been a full member of the OeAW since 2014 and is also a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.After a research career in universities in the USA, she was appointed as Professor of Surface Physics at the Institute of Applied Physics at the Vienna University of Technology in 2010. In 2013 she received Austria’s highest scientific award, the Wittgenstein Prize from the Austrian Science Fund FWF.

The scientific community as an intellectual center

Christian Windhorst, newly elected chairperson of the Historical Philosophical Class, and Wolfgang Baumjohan, designated chairperson of the Scientific Mathematics class, want to strengthen the cross-links between the two academic classes, in terms of research objects and methodological methods.

“We want to promote interdisciplinary exchange inside and outside the classroom. This advances science as a whole,” says Wendehorst, emphasizing, “Through their diversity and excellence, members make an important contribution to giving science a voice in Austria.” Wolfgang Baumjohann adds: Members of both classes are from the most diverse scientific institutions in Austria and abroad, making the educated community a unique intellectual centre.”

Christian Windhorst is Professor of Civil Law at the University of Vienna and Scientific Director of the European Law Institute, a pan-European institution, since 2008. She is Vice-President of the Institute for Innovation and Digitization in Law and a member of the Bioethics Committee of the Federal Chancellery. Wendehorst has been a full member of the OeAW since 2011 and is also a member of the Academia Europea. From 2017 to 2022 she was also Chair of the Academy Board, the OeAW’s highest supervisory body.

Astrophysicist Wolfgang Baumjohan headed the OeAW’s Graz Institute for Space Research from 2004 to 2021. He has been a full member of the Academy since 2009 and, among other things, a member of the Leopoldina. He teaches at the Graz University of Technology and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2015, the Austrian Education Club and Science Journalists voted Wolfgang Baumjohann “Scientist of the Year”.

Questions and contact:

Sven Hartwig
Head of Public Relations and Communications
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Dr. Ignaz Seibelplatz 2, 1010 Vienna
Tel +43 1 51581-1331
sven.hartwig@oeaw.ac.at