IST Austria class of 2020 and 2021: IST Austria congratulates 45 new PhD graduates

The academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 were everything but usual. The global pandemic had an immense impact on the IST Austria Graduate School, and yet, even under these challenging circumstances, IST Austria is proud to announce that 45 students graduated with a PhD. They are from 18 different countries – from Mexico and Portugal over Austria to China and Nepal- and from all scientific fields represented at IST Austria: physics, mathematics, computer sciences, and life sciences. After years of dedication, learning, and independent research, these new alumni will pursue careers in academia and industry.

Given the current situation in the world, a formal graduation ceremony with family and friends had to be postponed for another year. Still, IST Austria wants to congratulate all graduates on their remarkable achievements and announces the Outstanding Thesis Awards for 2020 and 2021. Domen Kapjut’s thesis “Molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial redox coupled proton-pumping enzymes,” (advised by Leonid Sazanov) and Amir Kafshdar Goharshady’s thesis “Parameterized and Algebro-geometric Advances in Static Program Analysis,” (advised by Krishnendu Chatterjee), received this honour. “Both students needed to finish their work during the pandemic and defended their theses in very unusual circumstances: partly or entirely online. Nevertheless, they delivered their remarkable theses even under these harder circumstances,” explains Nick Barton, Dean of the Graduate School of IST Austria.

Educating PhD students and conducting basic research at a world-class level is a core mission of IST Austria. At IST Austria, the new graduates built the foundation of their careers, in whatever direction they choose to pursue. Alumni of IST Austria are found everywhere in the world, and their careers include professor positions at universities such as Stanford and TU Vienna, or in essential roles in the industry at, for example, Genentech, NVIDIA, or Google. The IST Austria Alumni Club stays in touch with the graduates after their time in Klosterneuburg and looks forward to watching their progress and following their successes as they make their marks on the world. Since its foundation in 2009, IST Austria now has a total of 118 graduates.

The graduating classes of 2019/20 and 2020/21 comprise:

Frank Assen (Sixt Group), Urban Bezeljak (Loose Group), Pradeep Bhandari (Shigemoto Group), Giorgio Cipolloni (Erdös Group), Ximena Contreras Paniagua (Hippenmeyer Group), Paulo Dos Santos Caldas (Loose Group), Eniko Edelsbrunner (Barton Group), Shamsi Emtenani (Siekhaus Group), Dominik Forkert (Maas Group), Mirco Giacobbe (Henzinger Group), Rok Grah (Guet Group), Ruslan Guseinov (Bickel Group), Jakub Hajny (Friml Group), Huibin Han (Friml Group), Chethan Hosdurg Kamath (Pietrzak Group), Karla Huljev (Heisenberg Group), Kristof Huszar (Wagner Group), Karola Käfer (Csicsvari Group), Amir Kafshdar Goharshady (Chatterjee Group), Stephanie Kainrath (Janovjak Group), Domen Kampjut (Sazanov Group), Bor Kavcic (Tkacik Group), Aglaja Kopf (Sixt Group), Bernhard Kragl (Henzinger Group), Josip Kukucka (Katsaros Group), Li Xiang (Lemeshko Group), Zuzana Masarova (Wagner Group), Simon Mayer (Seiringer Group), Jasmin Morandell (Novarino Group), Katharina Ölsböck (Edelsbrunner Group), Georg Osang (Edelsbrunner Group), Chaitanya Paranjape (Hof Group), Mary Phuong (Lampert Group), Damaris Ketino Rangel Guerrero (Csicsvari Group), Amelie Royer (Lampert Group), Davide Scarselli (Hof Group), Cornelia Schwayer (Heisenberg Group), Serhii Avvakumov (Wagner Group), Sayan Shamipour (Heisenberg Group), Julia Steiner (Sazanov Group), Josef Tkadlec (Chatterjee Group), Isabella Tomanek (Guet Group), Mina Vasileva (Friml Group), Ran Zhang (Bickel Group) and Stephan Zhechev (Wagner Group)