IIASA is proud to announce that Energy, Climate, and Environment Program Director, Keywan Riahi has been elected as a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) ̶ Austria's largest non-university research and science institution.
The OeAW was founded as a learned society in 1847 and today has more than 760 members and 1,800 employees dedicated to innovative basic research, interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge, and the dissemination of new insights with the aim of contributing to progress in science and society as a whole. It is also the IIASA National Member Organization (NMO) representing Austria and entrusts the Austrian IIASA Committee with oversight of IIASA.
As a member of the Academy, Riahi joins an elite group of scientists to engage in interdisciplinary exchange to consider important questions concerning the future, advise on policy and society, and inform the general public of important scientific insights. Academy members also routinely form commissions to examine questions of great relevance to science and society.
Riahi has ample experience in interdisciplinary research of climate change response options working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and providing policy advice at the international as well as national level. In 2020, he was ranked first by Reuters as the most influential climate scientist worldwide and in 2021, he was recognized by Clarivate as one of 23 researchers worldwide in the list of Highly Cited Researchers in three categories: Geosciences; Social Sciences; and Environment and Ecology. In 2021, UN Secretary General Guterres appointed him to the 10-Member Group to advise the UN on the Technology Facilitation Mechanism for the implementation of the Agenda 2030. In March this year, he was also appointed to the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, which provides scientific advice to underpin climate action and efforts by the EU to reach climate neutrality by 2050.
"The Austrian Academy of Sciences is an astonishing institution with an impressive membership. I am equally humbled and excited to be invited and look forward to contribute and engaging with the community," Riahi concludes.
