IIASA has recognized four outstanding young scientists from the 2019 Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) as YSSP awardees. Two candidates will receive funding to continue their research projects at IIASA and two have been given an Honorable Mention for exceptional effort.

young scientists © IIASA

The winners of the annual Peccei and Mikhalevich awards for Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) participants have been announced. These awards will enable two participants from the 2019 YSSP to return to the institute for an additional three months to continue their research projects.

The awards are given annually for outstanding papers from the previous year’s YSSP cohort. Candidates are nominated by the program director of the relevant IIASA research program and assessed by a committee comprised of one member from each research program. Each candidate’s paper is evaluated based on its quality, originality, and relevance. The final decision is made by IIASA Director General Albert van Jaarsveld.

Peccei awards are named in honor of IIASA alumnus Aurelio Peccei and recognize policy-related research, while Mikhalevich awards, named for IIASA alumnus Vladimir S. Mikhalevich, are aimed at mathematically and methodologically oriented research.

The 2019 YSSP Peccei and Mihalevich Awards Winners


 
Felicia Chang © IIASA

Felicia Chang from the University of California, USA has won the Peccei Award for her study: “Concurrent temperature and precipitation shifts in historical and historical natural-only model simulations”

IIASA Program:  WAT.
IIASA Supervisors: Peter Greve, Yoshihide Wada


 
Nicolas Choquette-Levy © IIASA

Nicolas Choquette-Levy from Princeton University, USA won the Mikhalevich Award for his study: “The impact of risk sharing mechanisms on smallholder farmer climate adaptation strategies”

IIASA Program: ASA, RISK, POP.
IIASA Supervisors: Matthias Wildemeersch, JoAnne Bayer, Wolfgang Lutz

Honorable Mentions


 
Rory Gibb © IIASA

An Honorable Mention goes to Rory Gibb from the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, University College London, UK for his study on: “Interacting effects of land use, climate and socioeconomic change on Lassa fever in West Africa”
 

IIASA Program: ESM.
IIASA Supervisors: Piero Visconti, Tamas Krisztin 


 
Roope Karoonen © IIASA

An Honorable Mention goes to Roope Karoonen from the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, University of Helsinki, Finland for his study on: “Cultural evolution of sustainable behaviors: pro environmental tipping points in an agent-based model”
 

IIASA Program: ASA.
IIASA Supervisor: Nikita Strelkovskii

News

Electricity generation

18 May 2026

Full fossil fuel phase-out by 2050 would require up to 80% more electricity generation

New research by an international team of scientists finds that fully phasing out fossil fuels worldwide by 2050 would require global electricity generation to expand by roughly 60 to 80% beyond the levels projected in conventional 1.5°C climate pathways. The study also shows that eliminating fossil fuels could significantly reduce dependence on CO2 removal technologies and underground carbon storage.
YSSP award

15 January 2026

Winners of the 2025 Young Scientists Summer Program Awards Announced

IIASA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) Awards in recognition of outstanding research conducted during the program.
Group photo of the IIASA and PKU delegations

04 December 2025

Strengthening research collaboration with Peking University

Two recent visits by senior representatives of Peking University (PKU) to IIASA have reaffirmed and expanded the long-standing partnership between the institutions, highlighting new opportunities for joint research, academic training, and policy-relevant collaboration in environment, population, and systems sciences.