| Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften | |
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 Austrian Academy of Sciences | |
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| Formed | 1847; 178 years ago (1847) |
| Type | National academy |
| Jurisdiction | Austria |
| Headquarters | Vienna, Austria 48°12′32.0″N16°22′37.4″E / 48.208889°N 16.377056°E /48.208889; 16.377056 |
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| Website | www.oeaw.ac.at |
TheAustrian Academy of Sciences (German:Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften;ÖAW) is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every field, particularly in fundamental research.
In 1713,Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz suggested to establish an Academy, inspired by theRoyal Society and theFrench Academy of Sciences. The "Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien" was finally established by Imperial Patent on 14 May 1847. The academy soon began extensive research. In thehumanities the academy started with researching and publishing important historical sources of Austria. Research innatural science also covered a wide variety of topics.
The 1921 federal law guaranteed the legal basis of the academy in the newly foundedFirst Austrian Republic. From the mid-1960s onwards it became the country's leading institution in the field of non-university basic research.[citation needed]
The academy is also alearned society, and its past members have includedTheodor Billroth,Ludwig Boltzmann,Christian Doppler,Anton Eiselsberg,Otto Hittmair,Paul Kretschmer,Hans Horst Meyer,Albert Anton von Muchar,Julius von Schlosser,Roland Scholl,Eduard Suess and the Nobel Prize winnersJulius Wagner-Jauregg,Victor Francis Hess,Erwin Schrödinger andKonrad Lorenz.[1]Anton Zeilinger, predecessor of the academy's incumbent president, is Nobel Prize laureate in physics 2022.[2]
The academy operates 25 research institutes. In 2012, a reorganization prompted the outsourcing of various institutes to universities as well as mergers. The academy's institutes are split into two major divisions, one for mathematics and natural sciences (mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse) and one for humanities and social sciences (philosophisch-historische Klasse).
In the field ofhumanities, there are theInstitute for the Study of Ancient Culture, which is well known for the analysis of excavation results inCarnuntum andEphesos, theInstitute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, focusing onmontology, theInstitute of Culture Studies and Theatre History, and theVienna Institute of Demography, among others.
The academy conducts socio-cultural research in Tibetan-speaking Himalayas, Tibet, and central Asia.[3][4][5]
Facilities that focus onnatural sciences include theInstitute of Molecular Biotechnology (which is operated in cooperation withBoehringer Ingelheim), theGregor Mendel Institute, theAithyra Institute for biomedical Artificial Intelligence, theJohann Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (RICAM), Linz, theResearch Center for Molecular Medicine, theErich Schmid Institute of Materials Science, theInstitute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, theAcoustics Research Institute, theSpace Research Institute and theInstitute for High Energy Physics (HEPHY), Wien.
During his term as president of the academy (1991–2003), Werner Welzig initiated the establishment of the Galerie der Forschung (English: Gallery of Research).[6] In 2005 the Gallery organised its pilot event "Mapping controversies: the case of the genetically modified food",[7] which was staged in the Alte Aula in Vienna.
Via its Austrian Academy of Sciences Press imprint, the academy publishesMedieval Worlds: Comparative & Interdisciplinary Studies, a biannualpeer-reviewedopen accessacademic journal coveringMedieval studies. Other publications are theCorpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum andeco.mont – Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management. AlsoMemoranda of the Academy of Knowledge. Mathematical and natural science class (Denkschriften der Akademie der Wissenschaften), which was founded in 1850.[8]
