IIASA Acting Director General Wolfgang Lutz has received the Austrian Research Association’s 2023 Science Prize for his excellent scientific achievements and the scientific-political relevance and high topicality of his research.

Portrait of Wolfgang Lutz © Silveri | IIASA

The Austrian Research Association (OeFG)’s Science Prize is awarded every two years and aims to make Austrian science visible by recognizing and appreciating both the extraordinary achievements of a person and outstanding scientific work. Awardees are selected by the OeFG Scientific Advisory Board, which is made up of recognized representatives of the various scientific disciplines and is confirmed by the Executive Committee. 2023 marks the 16th time the Science Prize is awarded since it was first established.

Lutz is an internationally recognized social scientist and demographer. He is known for his work on international population trends with a special focus on population forecasting, population-development-environment interactions, and introducing education as a standard demographic dimension in addition to age and sex. He has published over 280 scientific articles and wrote or edited 27 books and special issues. He has won numerous other prestigious awards including the Wittgenstein Prize, two European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants, the Mattei Dogan award of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), and the Mindel C. Sheps Award of the Population Association of America (PAA). He was also appointed by the UN Secretary-General to be one of the 15 members of the Independent Group of Scientists to produce the quadrennial Global Sustainable Development Report 2019.

"Wolfgang Lutz enjoys the highest reputation worldwide as a scientist, demographer, and social statistician. At the same time, he is an international example for the successful introduction of scientific expertise into public discourses on quite a few of the burning challenges of our time," said Heinrich Schmidinger, chairman of the OeFG scientific advisory board in an announcement on the association’s website.

Previous winners of the OeFG Science Prize include: 2000 Peter L. Berger (Boston; Sociology), 2002 HansTuppy (Vienna; biochemistry), 2006 Helmut Rauch (Vienna; experimental physics), 2012 WalterMischel (New York; Psychology), 2014 Ingeborg Hochmair-Desoyer (Innsbruck, electrical engineering), and most recently in 2020 Jan Assmann (Constance, Egyptology) and Fritz Paschke (Vienna, electrical engineering).

The ceremonial presentation of the OeFG Science Prize to Wolfgang Lutz will take place in November 2023.

Read the original announcement here (in German).

News

Research concept

12 March 2024

Pioneering project investigating crisis effects on social systems wins FWF Emerging Fields Funding

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has awarded the Resilience and Malleability of Social Metabolism (REMASS) project funding of over six million euros for the next five years. This is an important milestone for this new field of research, which is being carried out by scientists from several Austrian institutions including IIASA.
University

22 February 2024

Master's Programme "Global Demography"

The Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, OeAW, University of Vienna) will start Master's Programme "Global Demography" at the University of Vienna with its fourth cohort of students in October 2024.
IIASA Director General John Schellnhuer with Martin Polaschek, Austria's Federal Minister for Education, Science, and Research

09 February 2024

Austrian Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research visits IIASA

Martin Polaschek, Austria's Federal Minister for Education, Science, and Research recently visited IIASA to discuss current research priorities and explore potential opportunities for collaboration between the institute and the Ministry.