Alexander Van der Bellen visits IST Austria

Today, Alexander Van der Bellen, Member of the Austrian Parliament for the Green Party and Vienna’s Commissioner for Universities and Research, visited IST Austria. President Thomas Henzinger welcomed him at IST Austria and introduced him to the organization of the research institute. The presentation was followed by a tour of the IST Austria campus in the course of which Alexander Van der Bellen met the PhD students Vanessa Barone and Sebastian Novak and the postdocs Chao Chen and Ashutosh Gupta. The discussion they engaged in was about what brings young researchers to Austria and what they expect from a world-class research institute. Last but not least, Alexander Van der Bellen exchanged views over lunch with Assistant Professor Daria Siekhaus, a biologist who recently joined IST Austria from Skirball Institute in New York, and Professor Jozsef Csicsvari, a Hungarian systems neuroscientist who came to IST Austria from the University of Oxford. Before departing Alexander Van der Bellen stated that the example of IST Austria displayed the necessity for a highly visible research institution if outstanding scientists were to be attracted in even greater numbers to Austria.