Another world is possible by Cynthia Enzlberger-Vaughan
As 4 October 2022 marks the 50th Anniversary of IIASA, we share a note from our alumna Cynthia Enzlberger-Vaughan below. If you would also like to share a blog, let us know.
IIASA’s vision from its conception was that another world is possible. Before the 4 October 1972, years of international negotiations and planning paved the way to that historical day when its inaugural meeting took place in London and the Institute’s Charter was signed.
Professor Raiffa wrote in his account of the early history of IIASA of the search for a home for the new institute and how they chose the offer made by Austria, a neutral country in the heart of Europe. The generosity of the Austrian Government in restoring and giving IIASA the use of the Laxenburg Palace, and later the Conference Center and the smaller summer palace which became IIASA’s Schloss Restaurant created an ambient between the beautiful historical, and the modern world of science and technology. And this is part of its magic.
In 1973 The Austrian Academy of Sciences was welcomed as the thirteenth IIASA member organization by the Council.
Looking at IIASA’s first Annual Report 1973, one sees the work involved in getting the research programs started, and also the care that was taken so that arriving scientists and their families would feel at home in their new environment: from housing; schooling; organizing buses to transport staff between Vienna and Laxenburg; IIASA’s Day Care Center for pre-school children, and for childcare during school holidays; staff lunches, first set up in the newly erected Lodge, and later moved to the Schloss Restaurant; and of course the Staff Association (STAC) which took care of staff concerns, organized social events and set up tennis and ski clubs among other activities.
As more scientific staff arrived, and the Young Scientists Summer Program was introduced, IIASA’s scientific network expanded internationally, with conferences at home and abroad bringing new collaborators, researchers and visitors to IIASA and this network has maintained their links to IIASA for decades and they are part of IIASA’s extended family, always warmly welcomed back and always glad to see ‘their Schloss’ and colleagues again!
However, the Institute’s path was not always plain sailing, and at the beginning of the 1980s it was nearly stricken by Hard Times and some of its founding members left and IIASA struggled to survive.
IIASA’s Mission
[Part of an address by IIASA’s Founding Director, Professor Howard Raiffa in May 1980]
“ …We have something precious here; something vastly different from other institutions. My fervent hope is that we will not lose perspective, that we will continue to nurture IIASA, despite the troubling time in the world. IIASA, being nongovernmental, being multi-national, should remain a fixed point within a turbulent sea.
IIASA has a mission: to continue to look ahead and anticipate the problems of the future; to identify what the real problems of the globe are, and not to get caught up in the hopefully ephemeral disputes of the superpowers. I must confess that I am not sanguine about the future–I am talking now about the world, and not about IIASA. We seem to be in a world of tribal confrontations and now in 1980 most of these tribes can only hurt each other. But technology marches on, and in 25 or 50 years, almost a blink of an eye in an evolutionary time scale, these tribes will be able to create devastating damage not only to each other but to the world onlookers. There is just not enough time to get our world house in order; to learn ways for more amicable, rational conflict resolution.
It is ludicrous to think that any single institution like IIASA could solve these problems. But still IIASA may make a difference. IIASA is now, at this very minute, making a difference. Just the very fact of our being here and having this conference is important on the international scene. So let’s not falter.”
Options Winter 2007 Special Edition: ‘35 years of IIASA’ From Cold War to global Warming – A history of IIASA through the decades, narrated with extracts from past Options articles.
References:
The founding of the institute
IIASA's first director Howard Raiffa on the negotiations that led to IIASA's creation.
https://previous.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/whatisiiasa/history/founding/the_founding_of_the_institute.html [Last edited: 14 January 2019]
CHARTER of the International Institute forApplied Systems Analysis
Laxenburg, Austria 1972 (Revised 1979 and 2008)
Founding Members:
The Academy of Sciences, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics;
The Committee for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Canada;
The Committee for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic;
The French Association for the Development of Systems Analysis, France;
The Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic;
The Japan Committee for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis;
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Sciences, Federal Republic of Germany;
The National Centre for Cybernetics and Computer Techniques, People’s Republic of Bulgaria;
The National Academy of Sciences, United States of America;
The National Research Council, Italy;
The Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland;
The Royal Society of London, United Kingdom
https://previous.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/leadership/iiasacharter/charter.pdf
The Signing of IIASA's Charter
In celebration of IIASA's 40th Anniversary, Prof. Vasko recalls when IIASA's Charter was signed on 4 October 1972 at the Royal Society in London.
"It was a great honor to be there," says Dr. Tibor Vasko, the signatory for former Czechoslovakia, "after so many years of preparation."
https://previous.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/alumni/vasko.html
IIASA's First Year by Buzz Holling
Buzz Holling was a Research Scholar in the Ecology and Environment Project from 1973-1975, and IIASA Director from 1981-1984.
https://previous.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/alumni/Buzz_Holling.html
Past Council Chairs and IIASA Directors
IIASA's first Director, Howard Raiffa, and first Council Chair, Jermen Gvishiani were first in a series of distinguished scientists who have held these posts at IIASA.
https://previous.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/whatisiiasa/history/past_directors_and_chairs.html
IIASA Annual Report 1973
Options Winter 2007 Special Edition: ‘35 years of IIASA’
https://previous.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/resources/publications/IIASAMagazineOptions/opt-35anniv.pdf