IIASA is proud to announce that Christian Koeberl, IIASA Council member for Austria, has been awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class.
© Silveri | IIASA
The Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art is awarded by the Austrian President on the recommendation of the Federal Government or a government-authorized Federal Minister. The awards honor Austrians and leading foreign figures who have “distinguished themselves and earned general acclaim through especially superior creative and commendable services in the areas of the sciences or the arts.”
Koeberl has been serving as IIASA Council member for Austria since January 2019. Apart from his continued involvement at IIASA, he is the former Director General of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, where he was responsible for increasing the quality and visibility of research at the museum, providing a larger number and greater variation of special exhibitions covering modern natural sciences, and renovating and updating the museum’s permanent exhibitions. He is a full professor of geosciences (planetary geology) at the University of Vienna, where he is also the deputy head of the Department of Lithospheric Research. He is a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where he heads the Committee on Geosciences. He has written or edited 23 books, published more than 510 peer-reviewed papers, and has received numerous awards including the Novartis Award for Chemistry, the Barringer Medal of the Meteoritical Society, and the Meteoritical Society's Service Award.
Koeberl is renowned for his research around processes and rocks related to meteor impact cratering through detailed and multidisciplinary investigations (mainly using geochemistry, petrography, and mineralogy, but also field geology and geophysics), as well as the development and testing of new methods that can be applied for such studies. He has made valuable contributions to the literature on a large number of impact structures, particularly in terms of impact geochemistry, and has in some cases contributed to the discovery of previously unknown impact craters. He even has an asteroid named in his honor – asteroid 15963 also known as “Koeberl”.
The Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class will be formally conferred on Koeberl by the Austrian Federal Minister for Education, Science, and Research, Martin Polaschek, during a ceremony on Monday, 24 October 2022.
IIASA extends its sincere congratulations to Christian Koeberl on this extraordinary achievement.
News
20 May 2026
New Elsevier report on Austria’s science system highlights IIASA’s global impact
IIASA has emerged as one of Austria’s standout research institutions in a new Elsevier report titled, Austria as a Science and Technology Nation, which benchmarks the country’s scientific performance in an international context.
05 May 2026
Amazon understory forests show short-term boost in CO₂ uptake – but this comes at a cost
Tropical forests are one of the planet's most important carbon sinks – often also called "the lungs of the Earth". But their future in a high-CO₂ world remains uncertain. IIASA researchers contributed to a new study, which suggests even small understory trees in the Amazon may initially buffer climate change more strongly. Their long-term capacity to store carbon could, however, be restricted by nutrient availability, highlighting the vulnerability of these ecosystems under future climate conditions.
25 March 2026
Exchange and dialogue at IIASA: A visit from Austria’s Federal President
On Tuesday, 17 March 2026, IIASA had the privilege of hosting Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen at Schloss Laxenburg for a program focused on exchange, conversation, and engagement with the Institute’s research community. Austria is IIASA’s host country and one of its founding members, with its membership dating back to 1973.